Lost your marbles?

zip55 · Post by **zip55** » Sat 19 Jan, 2013 11:46 pm

Taws ... and I'm pretty sure we called the best ones 'cracks'.

morleyhall · Post by **morleyhall** » Sun 20 Jan, 2013 2:27 am

House of Marbles at Bovey Tracey is well worth a visit if you’re ever in the area. They have a superb selection of marbles in the shop to choose from. http://www.houseofmarbles.com/articles/ ... rbles.html

tilly · Post by **tilly** » Sun 20 Jan, 2013 10:07 am

Hi phill if you intend to start to collect marbles it will burn a hole in your pocket the old ones are worth quite a bit of money.You would think they would go for pence but thats not the case. By the way i lost my marbles a long time ago.He. He.

Linky Oik · Post by **Linky Oik** » Sun 20 Jan, 2013 2:28 pm

This has certainly disloged some old memories...I do recall the marble terms described by others. Bollywashers, cracks, chinas, taws - all familiar to me. At my school, the bollies were about twice the size of normal marbles.I can't remember the exact rules of the game we played at primary school but Phil's recollections are similar to my own.We would find a hole in the playground tarmac about the size of a fist and set up some marbles around the hole in accordance with some forgotten rule. We would then try to knock an opponent's marble into the hole, winning the marble in the process. The conventional method for shooting your marble was with the thumb - I don't recall the finger nudges described by others. I do recall though there were various more sophisticated shooting methods, one of which was the dreaded "Indian Flick". This was achieved by placing the thumb and little finger of the shooting hand on the ground in a span, then using the spare hand to place a marble in front of the middle finger tip of the shooting hand, forming a shooting finger. This shooting finger was then bent back and allowed to spring forward, firing the marble with high velocity at the target marble. This method took immense skill and practice to perfect, but once mastered was marble equivalent of the longbow. I won many marbles this way - I think many of them are hidden in my loft somewhere still.As I write, I recall borrowing a hammer from someone and knocking a hole in the school playground tarmac - I think the existing holes were unsatisfactory for some reason. I'm sure a teacher was looking on approvingly at the time!

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Sun 20 Jan, 2013 3:31 pm

yorkiesknob wrote: I think the highly sought after or your favourite marble was called a "skinner". Great if you could win someone's skinner off them. The oversize marble were called bolly or bollywashers for some reason. I do remember them being called bollys 19th Century fizzy drink bottles had a glass marble in the neck. Kids used to break the bottles to get the marble. - hence bottle washers. The intact bottles are worth a few bob nowadays. Amazing what you pick up from the Antiques road Show!

blackprince · Post by **blackprince** » Sun 20 Jan, 2013 3:50 pm

raveydavey wrote: Phill, what you called 'Chinese' marbles, we used to call 'Chinas'.It's a long time ago now, but I assume it's because they looked like they were made of China, (like crockery)? Yes Chinas were made of porcelain. A few other names for different types were Catseyes, Oxblood ( white with a red streak) and Aggies( agate).

Johnny39 · Post by **Johnny39** » Sun 20 Jan, 2013 3:58 pm

The bag of "taws" was carried around as a schoolboy status symbol - the bigger and fuller the bag attaching more charisma to its owner. Happy days.

tilly · Post by **tilly** » Sun 20 Jan, 2013 4:07 pm

blackprince wrote: yorkiesknob wrote: I think the highly sought after or your favourite marble was called a "skinner". Great if you could win someone's skinner off them. The oversize marble were called bolly or bollywashers for some reason. I do remember them being called bollys 19th Century fizzy drink bottles had a glass marble in the neck. Kids used to break the bottles to get the marble. - hence bottle washers. The intact bottles are worth a few bob nowadays. Amazing what you pick up from the Antiques road Show! Hi blackprince the bottles are called cod bottles the green ones are not worth a lot of money but if you ever find a blue one then you are in the money big time.

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Sun 20 Jan, 2013 8:10 pm

The names for marbles, particularly the very large ones, are interesting as none of them rings a bell with me though for the life of me I cannot recall what I knew them as (presumably one of the given names that I've now forgotten). Not gob stoppers though, as they were sweets!

yorkiesknob · Post by **yorkiesknob** » Sun 20 Jan, 2013 9:54 pm

Using a bent finger to push your marble was called a shimmie/y . Many a game the cry was no shimming allowed.