I loved the catseyes the best, and even had a few giant ones. I won most of the marbles from all the boys in the neighborhood, and my mother made me GIVE THEM BACK. I’m still sad about it. I won them through skill, fair and square, and it was no fun to play after that.
I also played pick up sticks, and tiddlywinks, and later on, I had the world’s best toy; an erector set, with a motor. Then I found the science fiction section in the library, and life changed. I have no idea what happened to the erector set; I suppose my little brothers inherited it, and that was that.
I also played jacks; probably where I got the hand/eye coordination for marbles.
@Shrdlu I inherited an old erector set with a motor. The condition of the motor, however, made things far more dangerous. It no longer had the fairly smooth motion, but would work in unpredictable jerks. My neighbor and I used it to build a “hot potato catapult” the basically amounted to having it chuck stuff at us. I’m suddenly trying to remember how I survived childhood.
@Kidsandliz The commercially packaged marble runs (Marble Run, SpaceWarp, Techno Ball, Skyrail, Skytrax) were after my time (that is, after I was a kid), but I unabashedly played with my kid’s (I think it was a Skyrail) all the time.
@DrWorm we just had the kind that went round and round and then dropped a level and my uncle built one that had channels that went back and forth until they shot out the bottom.
@daveinwarsh There are people who do this as a hobby and for a living. You need to know how to weld (and bend metal- brass if you can afford it since it is easier to bend, but of course other stuff is cheaper. There’s a yahoo group and facebook dedicated to these. Usually calling rolling ball sculpture. The metal balls are usually ball bearings since they are more “regular” than marbles and at speeds that can be obtained and corners that can be sharp, you need predictability to keep them on the track.
Couldn’t take marbles to school, “keepsies” was likened to gambling. Marbles had been a very popular at the lil country school. 1st thru 9th, 200 or so students. They closed the hundred year old school recently. Oh, I’m rambling, again.
I never had marbles. I remember one kid in elementary school that had a bag of them hooked to a belt loop, and always wanted to play but wouldn’t let anyone touch his marbles, scolding us all for not bringing our own marbles, and ultimately assuring that not only would no one play marbles with him, but no one would play anything with him. He’s still one of the most awful human beings I’ve ever met. Even when he finally gave up on marbles in middle school, he tried to make us all play foursquare, so yeah, jerk.
big and small glass marbles. Some were my Dad’s from the '30s. We also had a few ~3/4" steel ball bearings from the shop but as with others, banned from play…
Absolutely. Marbles were a big thing. Steelies were cool, but as others have noted, they were ALWAYS banned from play. Boulders were allowed, though. Catseyes were generally the most desirable.
Marbles were the thing about the same time as yoyos, which had a 2-3 periods of hotness while I was growing up. Yoyos were big enough that Duncan sponsored champions who’d visit and show you how “easy” it was to do all kinds of tricks with them.
This is all Baby Boomer stuff. Kids today seem to have replaced this stuff with screen time.
Am a millennial. Had plenty of yo-yos as a a kid and a small collection of marbles. I don’t think I was even aware that there was a marbles game though, I just thought of them as little collectible shiny spheres.
@medz thanks. This is what I wanted to link, but I couldn’t remember the show I saw it on. The one I saw had a host that was talking to the guy explaining it versus the text on the screen.
I learned how to play 10 years ago when I was a Den mom for my son’s cub scout den.
I was happy Scouts had those types of activities, they do a good mix of always practical (e.g. first aid, cooking), advanced (e.g. STEM, rock climbing,) and “started as practical but now mostly hobby” (e.g pottery, woodworking, archery). It starts back in Cub Scouts with things like an achievement award for learning basic tool use, recognition for knife safety skills, and I think learning Marbles was part of a sportsmanship achievement award.
My kids both dropped before making Eagle but I loved their Troop and wished I could have done the badges. I dropped out of scouts as a brownie because my den was run badly (3 yrs got only one badge, the rest of the time seemed taken up with whatever the mom wanted to talk about but didn’t actually help us advance beyond the minimum, and she was going to be my Girl Scout leader when we bridged so I gave up).
Maybe I’ll add to my bucket list unofficially doing all the achievements for Eagle Scout/Gold Award.
I loved the catseyes the best, and even had a few giant ones. I won most of the marbles from all the boys in the neighborhood, and my mother made me GIVE THEM BACK. I’m still sad about it. I won them through skill, fair and square, and it was no fun to play after that.
I also played pick up sticks, and tiddlywinks, and later on, I had the world’s best toy; an erector set, with a motor. Then I found the science fiction section in the library, and life changed. I have no idea what happened to the erector set; I suppose my little brothers inherited it, and that was that.
I also played jacks; probably where I got the hand/eye coordination for marbles.
@Shrdlu I inherited an old erector set with a motor. The condition of the motor, however, made things far more dangerous. It no longer had the fairly smooth motion, but would work in unpredictable jerks. My neighbor and I used it to build a “hot potato catapult” the basically amounted to having it chuck stuff at us. I’m suddenly trying to remember how I survived childhood.
I liked pick up sticks and tiddlywinks!
How about marbles on a marble run? We played with those for hours as kids.
/image rolling ball sculpture
@Kidsandliz Yes, that’s what I did with marbles!
@Kidsandliz The commercially packaged marble runs (Marble Run, SpaceWarp, Techno Ball, Skyrail, Skytrax) were after my time (that is, after I was a kid), but I unabashedly played with my kid’s (I think it was a Skyrail) all the time.
@DrWorm we just had the kind that went round and round and then dropped a level and my uncle built one that had channels that went back and forth until they shot out the bottom.
@Kidsandliz I never have seen one of those. Is it something you can make? Seems pretty complicated bending…
@daveinwarsh There are people who do this as a hobby and for a living. You need to know how to weld (and bend metal- brass if you can afford it since it is easier to bend, but of course other stuff is cheaper. There’s a yahoo group and facebook dedicated to these. Usually calling rolling ball sculpture. The metal balls are usually ball bearings since they are more “regular” than marbles and at speeds that can be obtained and corners that can be sharp, you need predictability to keep them on the track.
I was often the marble champion.
My steely shooters (from a huge old ball bearing) were banned from games.
@daveinwarsh I have a steelie of my dad’s. He called it playing “immies” although Google tells me that’s one kind of marble. Ah, the Depression.
Couldn’t take marbles to school, “keepsies” was likened to gambling. Marbles had been a very popular at the lil country school. 1st thru 9th, 200 or so students. They closed the hundred year old school recently. Oh, I’m rambling, again.
/giphy rolling ball sculpture
@Kidsandliz i could watch this and the other marble videos for hours. Dang grownupness, I have to get back to work!
@mollama there are some really nifty ones out there.
@Pavlov I especially liked the kazoos.
@Pavlov It really is hard to bargle nawdle zouss, regardless.
I never had marbles. I remember one kid in elementary school that had a bag of them hooked to a belt loop, and always wanted to play but wouldn’t let anyone touch his marbles, scolding us all for not bringing our own marbles, and ultimately assuring that not only would no one play marbles with him, but no one would play anything with him. He’s still one of the most awful human beings I’ve ever met. Even when he finally gave up on marbles in middle school, he tried to make us all play foursquare, so yeah, jerk.
/giphy rolling ball sculpture
@Kidsandliz
A surprisingly interesting channel.
I had my dad’s marble collection. They had been played with. Does that count?
big and small glass marbles. Some were my Dad’s from the '30s. We also had a few ~3/4" steel ball bearings from the shop but as with others, banned from play…
No, but I did play tiddlywinks and dominos with my grandmother.
one more
/image noisy freight train
That’s neat. It sounds like a freight train.
@Kidsandliz
@eonfifty Some of those are really noisy.
I quit after I lost my marbles.
@rtjhnstn Don’t worry, they’re waiting for you, out there, somewhere
/image kerplunk game
@medz We had that one. Unfortunately it got shattered when my parents moved in 2007.
I had some cool looking marbles in a jar, and sometimes I’d look at them. That was a fun game.
These days I collect 5" steel bearing balls. And by “collect” I mean I bought one once. It’s heavy!
I remember having one of these:
which was good, because at the time, I did not have enough manual dexterity to thumb-shoot a marble with any accuracy
first
@Kidsandliz quesiton
@Kidsandliz
What’s a “quesiton” in the next to last choice in today’s list of answers?
@chuckf1 I think that’s a new subatomic particle. It’s what gives matter the quality of “smug.”
@PocketBrain The first time I read your answer I thought you said smog LOL
I am a kid!
Absolutely. Marbles were a big thing. Steelies were cool, but as others have noted, they were ALWAYS banned from play. Boulders were allowed, though. Catseyes were generally the most desirable.
Marbles were the thing about the same time as yoyos, which had a 2-3 periods of hotness while I was growing up. Yoyos were big enough that Duncan sponsored champions who’d visit and show you how “easy” it was to do all kinds of tricks with them.
This is all Baby Boomer stuff. Kids today seem to have replaced this stuff with screen time.
Am a millennial. Had plenty of yo-yos as a a kid and a small collection of marbles. I don’t think I was even aware that there was a marbles game though, I just thought of them as little collectible shiny spheres.
/youtube how it’s made marbles
@RiotDemon
@medz thanks. This is what I wanted to link, but I couldn’t remember the show I saw it on. The one I saw had a host that was talking to the guy explaining it versus the text on the screen.
I learned how to play 10 years ago when I was a Den mom for my son’s cub scout den.
I was happy Scouts had those types of activities, they do a good mix of always practical (e.g. first aid, cooking), advanced (e.g. STEM, rock climbing,) and “started as practical but now mostly hobby” (e.g pottery, woodworking, archery). It starts back in Cub Scouts with things like an achievement award for learning basic tool use, recognition for knife safety skills, and I think learning Marbles was part of a sportsmanship achievement award.
My kids both dropped before making Eagle but I loved their Troop and wished I could have done the badges. I dropped out of scouts as a brownie because my den was run badly (3 yrs got only one badge, the rest of the time seemed taken up with whatever the mom wanted to talk about but didn’t actually help us advance beyond the minimum, and she was going to be my Girl Scout leader when we bridged so I gave up).
Maybe I’ll add to my bucket list unofficially doing all the achievements for Eagle Scout/Gold Award.