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Shooting marbles was enormously popular in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. HBC has little information on playing marbles in the first half of the century. We can confim that by mid-century it was a well established game in America. Less information is available earlier, in part because of the lack of photography as well as the failure of comtemporary publications to report on mundane children's games. I played marbles as a boy and rember being fascinated by all the colorful different types, but dont's remember actually shhoting them. I do remember using them for Chinese checkers. A HBC reader recalls more. "In the late 1930's I played marbles all the time at school. All the boys played and our school yard was plain dirt and we drew the circles and played marbles. There were two major games, first game was we played was "for keeps" and the second game we played was called "agates."
Shooting marbles was enormously popular in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. HBC has little information on playing marbles in the first half of the century. We can confim that by mid-century it was a well established game in America. Less information is available earlier, in part because of the lack of photography as well as the failure of comtemporary publications to report on mundane children's games.
You put a prescribe number of marbles in the circle, depending how many
players are willing to play. You shoot from the outer rim of the circle
and you knuckles must touch the ground. We called it knuckles down. You
shoot and when you hit a marble, it had to go completely out of the
circle. That becomes your marble. You shoot until you miss. Sometimes
the first shooter may knock all the marbles out of the circle. Choosing
the first shooter, second shooter and so on, was done by several
methods. 1. Toss or shoot your marble to line. Who is the closes to the
line determines 1st, 2nd and so on. The second one is draw sticks with
various lengths. The longest is the first shooter.
As far a we can tell, marbles was a game only for boys. Now sports we understand because of the physicality of sports. Sports were something in which girls until the 1970s generally did not prticipate. By marbles were a little different. There was skill, but no pysicality involved. Thus I am not sure why girls did not participate. You figure that parents might have even frownned on girls doing sports. So one has to wonder why girls were not interested. It was not the skill factor as they did nots of things which involved skill, such as jump rope and hopscotch. I suspect it was the cut-throat competition involved keepsies. And girls may not have liked kneeling down in the dirt. The fact that mostly boys are involved may have also detered the girls, although on has to wonder why it was mostly boys in the first place. Hopefully reades might have some insights here.
I played marbles as a boy in the late 1940s and early 50s and remember being fascinated by all the colorful different types, but dont's rember actually shhoting them. I do remember using them for Chinese checkers.
A HBC reader recalls more. "In the late 1930's I played marbles all the time at school. All the boys played and our school yard was plain dirt and we drew the circles and played marbles. There were two major games, first game was we played was "for keeps" and the second game we played was called "agates."
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