Marbles: A game of skill, strategy and negotiation

Marbles used to be a big-time, serious game.

Way back when spring had broken and the weather became cooperative, children played marbles at school during recess where there was dirt, not grass and pavement.

The teacher never seemed to organize the marble playing. Since the children knew what to do, she just turned them loose and let them get their own games going.

Mostly boys played marbles. Some girls played occasionally, but they would more frequently watch the boys crawl around in the dirt and draw a circle, triangle or square to set their boundaries and go about the game with gusto.

Before the first marble was shot, the boys got their marbles out of their pouches or pockets and decided on which marble game to play, there being many to choose from. They would talk and maybe argue a little as they settled on the rules, the bossiest boys usually having their own way.

To decide who would shoot first, they would draw a line in the dirt about 10 feet from the playing space. Each player would shoot a marble with his thumb or forefinger and get his marble as close to the line as he could. The one who came closest to the line would shoot first.

They had to decide whether they would play for fair or play for keepsies: "Winner keeps, loser weeps." Good players would surely end up with more marbles than they had started with if they decided on keepsies.

Each player would then choose his best shooter, or clodknocker, and thump it toward the colorful, glassy display of cat-eyes, peewees and other marbles in the circle, square or triangle and try to shoot as many out as possible.

Games of marbles might result in conflict as players were accused of breaking rules or even cheating. In such games a player might get so disgusted that he would "pack up his marbles and go home."

These days, we still use "pack up your marbles and go home" as a metaphor for when a person gets disgusted and quits some activity because he does not get his own way.

Adults are guilty of this childish, schoolyard act.

In marble games you would hear words like hand span, double hand span, onesies, twosies, threesies and other colorful terms as the game gained momentum.

Anyway, the game usually went on until the teacher started gathering the children to go inside for an arithmetic or reading lesson, the games finished for the day.

Playing marbles gave children much to talk about at supper, sometimes a legitimate bragging session and other times a stretching of the truth to compensate for their inadequacies at marbles.

Many a mama had to sew or iron patches on the boys' dungaree knees to cover up holes after all that crawling around in the dirt.

Maybe girls avoided playing marbles because they wore dresses and did not like the idea of crawling around on their bare knees.

Children played marbles at home and around the neighborhood as well, yet nothing compared to the game at school where they could volley for position, practice accuracy and learn negotiating skills from playing with so many other children.

Children did not know when they were playing marbles on the playground that they were practicing skills and strategies that they would take with them to the adult world and to their families and careers.

How many of you readers remember the great game of marbles, and how many of you still have your cat-eyes, peewees and shooters stored in the attic or maybe in a cigar box?

If you still have all your marbles, why not get up a game with friends and join the millions of people around the world who still play this ancient game?

You might have fun, and you might even choose to play for keepsies.

Sanda Baucom Hight is retired from Wilson County Schools after serving as an English teacher and is currently a substitute teacher in Wilson County. Her award-winning weekly column focuses on the charms of home, school and country life.