Poor guy waiting for his Valium to kick in and calm him down before he takes his Retracto-Top back to the F@#& dealer for the 37th time! The upside to is they'll give him a brand new '60 Falcon as a loaner so he can still keep his date with Betty Lu.....
Hello, Most people played with marbles when they were kids, but some enjoy collecting them even in older age. Judging by the prices for some pieces, it is a serious hobby nowadays. These cute round toys were made of stone in ancient times, but you can typically find those produced of glass, agate, and clay on the current market. We used to get a bag of marbles at the local neighborhood market. At first, they were good for slingshots in the open fields behind our house. But as we started playing marbles games, the value of a bag of marbles was the prize. Little kids challenging others to play a marbles game with the prize being a bag of marbles. When the tension was evident, the player’s prized shooter was also thrown in as a means of confidence. Our old Westside of Long Beach neighborhood had a large tall grassy field behind our house. So, we could clear out the grass and make a level playing area. Then over a few feet, another clearing with 4 holes wide spread about the size of a square cardboard table. That was for the 4 hole game of chase. Also, was a longer "chase" game in a long clearing from the starting line to the far finish, safety line. Once, the starting order was made, the first shooter, shot as far as he could. Then, the next guy went after that marble shooter as it lay the distance from the line. If the 2nd shooter hit the first guy, then that marble was now in his marble bag. The first guy was out. The game could take awhile for a large number of kids, but it was a way to earn free marbles, and good shooters at that during a "chase" game. I used one shooter in the long "chase" game. They were good agate shooters and I had several. So, when I lost a round or two, those could be replaced with new Agate shooters. slightly smaller than the circle game agate shooters, but sad, when I lost the long "chase" game. I had two shooters. One was a blue agate which looked nice, but was not my favorite. The tan/gold striped agate shooter was my favorite and in all of the games played from 1953 to junior high school, it remained undefeated. In Junior H.S. it was not a bag of marbles but cigarettes, Cokes after school and even a cheeseburger as a prize. By the end of the 7th grade, all marbles went into a bag and given to our cousins, who were years younger and now were into marbles games. Recently, my wife and I went to our safe deposit box to put in the latest saved files/photos on an extended portable hard drive 4 tb large. (It is half full) it is small enough and the small box had plenty of space for other stuff. But, we sat there and filtered out what was in there and eliminated those old receipts as well as documents we no longer need. There was a stack of them. In our time filtering the items, out rolls a nice tan/gold Agate marble from 1953. Ahhh, it was my favorite one from my championship year during the 5th grade adventures. Wow, it was like old home week in Long Beach so long ago. It was still in excellent shape and yes, I did shoot it across the table into a corner. It felt like it was 1953 all over again. Ha! What an old guy memory. Jnaki We played a series of games, from the knock them out circle border game, 4 holes game, and a chase to two holes game for an overall score. My 5th grade year victories, plus the 4th grade teacher’s support turned me around to do better in school. The 5th grade was the topper class. An intelligent man name Mr. Gianutious from Italy, but born in America was an excellent teacher and a rarity, a male teacher in elementary school! Everyone wanted to be in his class. My wife asked me how I got so good as a marbles player. We had a huge fenced in yard when we first moved to a real house in the far reaches of the Westside of Long Beach. In the backyard, my mom allowed me to carve out a flat dirt area, just for my own space. But, in it, I made a series of marbles game playing areas. The circle game could be outside in the dirt, which the games usually were. Or a large circular string laid out on a flat rug for indoor games. But the dirt area had two holes and a four hole game playing area. I spent plenty of hours daily shooting my marbles in those various games. Here is what was my next favorite shooter, but it is now gone, after I gave it to my brother in 1954. He probably had a bag or two to give to his two sons. I had a couple of these, but they stood out too much in a game of chase and the circle game. These old memories flashed back with one look and feel of that tan/gold Agate marble. Now, it will continue to rest in the safe deposit box for our family generations in the future. YRMV
The Jalopy Journal
