News Articles about Marbles

Faces & Places, Around St. Paul, Minneapolis Star and Tribune

"Mad about marbles" by Joe Kimball

Lots of nostalgia, as well as marble shooting skill, was evident when nearly 200 people showed up to watch 12 contestants in the Aug. 8 marble tournament at the Essence of Nonsense toy store, 1783 St. Clair Ave.

Many spectators didn't even know the contestants; they just wanted to see marbles.

"When it got down to the final heat, everyone was so quiet," said Tom Fletcher, store owner and tournament organizer. "With each marble, there was a hushed silence, then quiet gasps. Just like golf, only better."

Tournament winner was Grant Wolter, 11, who is going into sixth grade at Chelsea Heights Elementary School. His secret: "I practice a lot with my friends. I press hard on the marble and it goes flying."

Runner-up wa Gus Olsen, last year's champion; third was Ben Amundson.

Among the spectators were two folks visiting from Kansas City. "They were older and talked about playing marbles 65 or 70 years ago," Fletcher said.

he said he hopes other stores or playgrounds will launch tournaments and help to revive the game.

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Red Wing Republican Eagle, September 18, 2001

'Youths learn to roll with the best of 'em' by Ruth Nerhaugen, staff writer

Marble games make a resurgence

Knuckle down. Be a straight shooter. We're playing for keeps. Expressions that have become part of our everyday vocabulary owe their existence to a child's game: marbles.

"Every other generation seems to play this," said Tom Fletcher, St. Paul toy store operator and marbles expert.

That may explain why the expressions sound a bit old-fashioned. All sorts of people over 60 know their marbles, but today's kids have only a fleeting acquaintance with the playthings.

Fletcher spent Saturday in Red Wing trying to rectify that lack of knowledge. The toy store displayed a variety of wares on the grounds of the Anderson Center at Tower View during the Celebration of minnesota Children's Authors and Illustrators.

Marble playing, along with puppet-making and face-painting, were an appropriate extension of the book fair because al involve way children can explore now things and enjoy doing it.

Too often, reading is matched up with 'riting and 'rithmetic and made to sound like a chore. Not at this celebration. Here, books ranked right up there on the 'fun' chart with free ice cream and cookies, giant paper dragons, stilts and, as mentioned, marbles.

The game's appeal

What's the game's appeal? "Greed, fame, power, wealth, " Fletcher joked. In truth, he said, marbles have been a popular toy in cultures for countless generations. The game has no barrier of language, color or age.

"People like to play marbles because it's fun," said Barbra Andreson, his business partner at the store. "You can play anywhere, any time."

All you need are marbles, a shooter and a small space. Dirt and sand are good, but Fletcher's favorite is an Army blanket. For Saturday's lessons he used string to make the circle of play for Ringer, the game he was teaching, but chalk also works great on a hard surface.

Fletcher credited Anderson with reintroducing him to marbles. "I played when I was a kid, probably from age 4 until I was 14 or 15, then not again until I was 40," he said. About 17 years ago he stopped in the toy store she was running at the time in Almo' Wis., and bought 73 cents worth of marbles.

Rediscovering marbles

Anderson has been in the toy business for 21 years, offering old-fashioned toys and game and stuffed animals, plus a small selection of books. They've bee partners in Essence of Nonsense Toy Store for five years. "I'm Miss Essence. He's Mr. Nonsense," she explained.

She used to sell 30,000 marbles a year at the Alma store before moving operations to the Twin Cities.

When he rediscovered marbles at Anderson's store, Fletcher started not only to play again, but also to read everything he could find on marbles.

Rules vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, he said, so he wrote down the basic rules which are common to St. Paul, and some parts of south Chicago in order to hold a tournament. Today the toy store sponsors a major tournament the second weekend of August each year in St. Paul. There wore just two age categories; 6 to 12, and older than 12.

Intergenerational

"It's wonderful to watch a crowd of energetic, smart mouth teen-agers play with a guy in his 70's who can shoot circles around them. You have to bite your tounge to keep from laughing" as they turn to the elder and ask for advice.

Marbles is a game that reflects some of life's basic lessons, Fletcher said. He especially likes the fact that "You all have to agree on the rules," before you start playing, and after the first game is done, you can agree to change the rules. All it takes is personal negotiation.

similarly, all decisions are resolved in the simplest fashion. You flip a coin to see who starts, and to resolve disputes such as whether a marble that's on the line is in or out. At the end, the players always_____.

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Game has many variations, by Ruth Nergaugen

Marbles isn't just one game, but hundreds of games that can be played - with hundreds of variations on the rules - using the small glass balls.

Common U.S. marbles in the first half or this century included the basic style with swirls of opaque color, puries of clear glass, and the hugely popular cat's eyes with a swirl of color inside clear glass. Some people also used steelies, which actually were steel ball bearings.

Among the more exotic were green parrots, also called 7-ups, and spaghettis with skinny swirls in translucent glass, plus flecked black destroyers. Since the 1970s came frosted marbles and shiny oilies, plus solid marbles in basic colors which may be known by the vegetable hue they resemble.

The basic rules for a two-person game are simple: Players agree on the size of the circle, which is drawn or created with string; a coin flip decides who goes first; players must "knuckle down" with at least on knuckle touching the playing field when shooting, and may not lift (heist) or slide (hunch) at risk of losing a turn.

To play St. Paul Ringer, each person puts five small "target" marbles inside the circle and both agree, "Game set." Taking turns, the players use a larger "shooter" to try and knock one or more small marbles out of the circle. Knuckling, flicking and popping all are acceptable shooting styles.

If the shooter knocks a target out but stays inside the circle, the player gets a another turn. The first to knock six marbles out is the winner. Play can be "for keeps" or "for faith," which means each player gets his or her original marbles back.

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