quote:

Originally posted by fascination:
Makes you wonder if these complex video games or flashy movies are really all that necessary.

Remember POGs? Those were the greatest. I was in junior high when they were big, and you could just walk down the street and if you saw any other kid, you could just challenge each other and throw down your pogs, and it was a real competition, because if you lost, the other guy got to keep your pogs, so there was really something at stake! (even if it was a piece of cardboard) What a great idea that was!!

Yeah, but they were less fun after the pog manufacturers insisted on them being called "milk caps."

I not familiar with pog, but I do remember vividly hours upon hours of playing marbles. We played behind the school, on the walk home at day's end, in the neighborhood's empty lot, in driveways, at the playground -- no computers-1000 channel tv's-ipods-playstations (we always created our "own playstations, come to think of it).

I still have a large canvas bag filled with hundreds of these beauties: (I was actually a sharpshooter back in my prime, 11-13yrs):
http://www.landofmarbles.com/
http://www.landofmarbles.com/marbles-play.html

I lost most of mine...

Frank, what were some of the terms for the various marbles. The large shooter marble was called something and there were names for some of the others as well. Elucidate me and the others please.

I remember Aggies, Puries, and Steelies...

"... Jim, I'll give you a marvel. I'll give you a white alley!"
Jim began to waver.
"White alley, Jim! And it's a bully taw."
"My! Dat's a mighty gay marvel, I tell you! But Mars Tom I's powerful 'fraid ole missis --"
"And besides, if you will I'll show you my sore toe."

(from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapter 2)

quote:

Originally posted by biplane1:
Elucidate me...

Elucidate is a good word.

The big, clear shooters (often with a swash of color(s) in them) were simply "glassies." Our take on BII's "steelies" was the term "arnies." When you had a nice shiny one of these heavy hitters, you were the Cat's Pajamas. Occasionally, they measured two inches in diameter, and all the best glassies were put away if someone arrived brandishing one of these babies. A well-placed arny could blast a big shooter into cosmic dust. So, showing off with a big, blue glassy was foolhearty under such cicrumstances.

I can remember having a 25 marble "all in" gathering. (Big stakes for a kid back then!) Five or six guys would put up agreed upon types of marbles. So you would end up with as many as 150 prizes in a big circle, maybe 6'-7' across.

You would throw your shooter as close to a building wall as possible without hitting it. Closest goes first, etc, etc.

Then you would shoot in turn. As long as you knocked a marble (or more) out, you kept shooting. Where your shooter landed was where you continued to shoot from, unless it stopped inside the circle, when a drop over the shoulder was required. A good shooting eye could get you a lot of marbles if the planets lined up right.

Then, there were also old clay (light brown) marbles that would be found in the many gardens in our neighborhood. From a generation before mine, no doubt.

As soon as the snow melted, the marble matches began. One of the worst events...to lose an arny or a valuable glassy down a storm drain!

There was nothing better than returning home with your bluejean pockets filled with someone else's marbles. Click-click-click-click!