h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I rummaged around and found some names. And some beautiful pictures, too. Marbles are cool.

Corkscrew, rainbow, swirl, agate ["aggies"????], immies, onionskin, mica, clouds, opaques. I think some of these were brand names, and some were descriptive.

I think clouds -may- have been another name for catseyes... I could be mistaken, but never wrong.

Don't forget Steelies! Man, I used to envy the kids with the huge steelies, which were probably just taken from banged up cars! You could never loose with a steelie with a greater circumference than 1 inch!

Erm.. Aren't the ball bearings supposed to be in another thread?

Power marbles???

Actually, making them out of glass is a relatively new practice. They were made out of clay, wood, and all other kinda stuff in the past. Marbles is one of the oldest games. After blocks, that is.

So I guess steel steelies are nothing new, and legally part of the marble article. I remember the name, but I didn't know they were really steel!

Yep, just written about them over in the other forum. Steelies were king in our playground. You're right - you couldnt buy them - you had to have an uncle who worked in a garage to get them for you. Glass marbles were sold in the shops in string bags, but much like certain magazines for older boys, nobody actually seemed to BUY them. You just always seemed to have them, as though they spontaneously came into existence underneath the bed. Anyway, they had to be practically opaque because of chips. If the wee swirly bit was too bright, you knew you were playing a rich kid who already cared way too much about his posessions.

Marbles--we have quite a collection, gathered from the dirt in various backyards around Northern California. "Treasure" dug while installing irrigation systems or building patios or fences. They will be our legacy to our children.

marbles: Chinese Checkers.

Quite so. Cross reference. Yes.

See my entry in 'comments' thread.

Digging for marbles????

You mean they are found in nature!!!!????


Or, artifacts from an earlier culture????

Wow, cool...all we ever find in Michigan are old tires and arrowheads.

So what about those with the little American flag right in the middle????

Did anyone have one of those?

And were there any with the Union Jack inside???

So! The native Americans were driving cars long before the Pilgrim Fathers arrived!

except that they mostly didn't have wheels...

actually NONE of them had wheels

the wheel was one of the European gifts to the New World. Right up there with smallpox and syphillis. And equally useful if you look at the automobile accident rates.

And what the the native Americans give us in return? Tobacco...

So maybe it WAS a fair trade...

Marbles...mmm. I played marbles all my childhood. We used to fight over them...in fact, I distinctly remember all the children on my estate having a mini-war in the meadow over a game which was perceived to have been unfairly won. Unfairly won using a steelie, no less. As for marbles being a 'boy toy', not in my experience. Unless I've been having a severe identity crisis for most of my life

Regarding marble names, I seem to recall we classed ours in terms of size as well as patterning. Megas were the really large ones, squeenies the really, really tiny ones - the ones which were no good for games, really, but just kept for aesthetic value. My little sister used to collect all the chipped marbles which my friends and I threw away, as well, and trade them in with her friends. Marble players in training. *grin*

I sense a new thread coming on...but for the moment, NO, I've never seen a Union Jack Marble. Maybe you used to get them on things like the Queen's Jubilee Day or something. Here in Scotland we'd be less interested in that kind of thing.

Oh, I forgot the whole forum and HTML thingie...bother. Ignore the random

Cool! I never realized there were so many girl marble players. In my corner of childhood girls played jacks and boys played marbles.

Now we need to hear from some boy jacks players...

Odd how girls cross the line into what could be considered boy-toys, but boys hardly ever cross into the land of girl toys...

Anybody remember the problems some parents had with their sons being given GI Joe? [My son play with DOLLS?????? NEVER!!!]

Thanks for the marble names. All these technical terms are very important to the history of the game.


}:=8

*refrains from commenting on boys playing with their marbles*

Ah, your restraint is commendable!

But is so reassuring to see that one of Murphy's newest laws is functioning in this forum...

"If left to itself, eventually any h2g2 Forum will relate to sex"




...er...that IS what you meant, isn't it????

*mmmrphrwlfmph!*