National Toy Hall of Fame - Part 1

In sleepy little Rochester New York there sits the Strong National Museum of Play. In a shadowy corner and up a spiral staircase of the museum hides the National Toy Hall of Fame. Here resides an area dedicated to thirty-eight toys that have been inducted based on their broad appeal and historical stamina. One of these toys is the subject of this profile:

Marbles have been around for a long time. By some authorities it was played in one form or another in the classical period by Eqyptians and Romans (the Romans called the game "nuts"), and continues to be played in various forms around the world. The most common in America is usually called Ringer, where a ring is drawn on the ground and the object is to use knock an opponent's marble out of the circle with one of your own marbles. Other marble games use small holes in the ground (divots in some games) and the objective is to shoot your marble into a specific hole, usually to move on to another hole to complete a circuit or course.

One the most interesting part of marbles is the jargon that accompanies it. There are dozens of names for different marbles, to name a few: Taw - the shooter marble, Aggie - an agate marble, or a glass one that looks like agate, Alley - marble made of marble!, Keepsies - playing for keeps, where you keep the marbles that you shoot out of the ring, Knuckling down - rule that a player must have at least one knuckle down on the ground when he shoots, Fudging - a foul when the player does not knuckledown.

If you think you are good enough, there is a National Marbles Tournament (more pictures here)and a British and World Marble Championship every year (March 21st this year - go mark your calendar).

A good website to check out for rules and variations is here.

There is even a PC game of marbles available!




Marbles at ebay.com