Marbles

Lately I’ve been playing a lot of marbles. Marbles are one of those things you forget about for long periods of time and then re-discover in the eyes of children.

My favorites are the cat’s eyes.

Recently I was with one of my friends, Congo Kate, and she reminded me of steelies. I had completely forgotten about steelies. Puries, cat’s eyes, and shooters I remember. Google tells me there are other exotics such as Butterflies, Commies, Peanut Butter and Jelly and the rare Butterfly Agate. There were definitely no clay commies or PB&J marbles on my playground when I was growing up. Often time there was lots of mud and often times snow, but no commies.

Actually I remember the small one’s being shooters. The large ones were definitely boulders, but I don’t remember anything named half-pints. A little more research provides actual dissertations on the how marble game is played and a wealth of names. Names like bumbos, peawees, china, plaster, alley, opals, glimmers, bloods, rubies, and crystals.

The information available on the web is often overwhelming. Too many people with too much time to research too many things, including a wealth of information available on “marble dialects”.

But still, it makes me warm and smiley when I hear “daddy, do you want to play marbles with me?”