All The Marbles

While growing up in Rayne, Louisiana, I played marbles. Most boys and some girls would play marble games at home and at school before class and during recess.

Groups of two to six would play in each game of marbles. Everyone would “lag” to determine who shoots first. The closest to the lag line wins, followed by order of closeness. When only two or three players participated rock-paper-scissors would determine the order of play.

My schoolmates and I would carry our marbles in our pockets, bags or in an old sock. Some even carried them in a cigar box with a hole in the lid to be used as a “Drop box.”

We would draw a circle in the dirt, but officially the game was played in a ten feet diameter ring and on smooth level ground, hard clay, or suitable substance.

In archaeological sites from Egypt and Rome, marbles have been found dating back to 3000 BC and some back to the ice age and on every continent. Several U.S. presidents played marbles. Some say Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson played marbles. Abraham Lincoln was an expert at the game.

Vice President, John Tyler, was on his knees playing marbles when he was informed that he had become our tenth President of the United States upon the death of President Harrison.

Marbles were first made of flint, stone, and baked clay. Later they were made of stone, marble, clay, wood, plastic, ceramic, porcelain, steel; the favorite was glass. They were made in various sizes, but five-eights inch is the standard. Steelies or ironies were banned from most games, however we didn’t know better, so in Rayne they were allowed.

When we played marbles, we always played for keeps, and when the school bell rang ending recess and the game of marbles; each player would grab for the marbles left inside the ring.

Ringer is the most popular marble game, but for us growing up in Rayne, we never knew the names of any marble games. We just played.

A German glass blower invented a marble scissor in 1846, which increased production. The first machine to manufacture glass marbles was introduced in the 1890’s. In 1943 there were about eighty million marbles manufactured here, in the United States and distributed around the world.

In the 1920s and 1930s marbles were as popular as baseball with the boys and the girls. The TV and other electronic games have effectively ended the game of marbles.

The games of golf, bowling and billiards all evolved from marbles.

The National Marbles Tournament is held each June in Wildwood, New Jersey and the game of “ringer” was chosen as the official game. It is the oldest, ongoing national tournament contest for children in America.

The National Marbles Museum is located in Northern California at Yreka.

Tinsley Green, located just twenty-eight miles south of London, England has hosted the World Marbles Championship for 300 years. It is held on Good Friday.

The term “No funching” means while shooting your shooter, you cannot crossover the line or ring. That is considered cheating. A number of terms used in the American lexicon come from marbles. Some of the more common terms are “Knuckle down,” “Playing for keeps,” “Lagging,” and the most obvious one is “All the marbles.”

Non-fiction

William J. Thibodeaux

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