I am known as the ‘Marbles Lady’ or ‘Marbles Expert’ but not because I am an ace at the actual game of marbles.  It is because I am a keynote speaker and trainer on comparing marbles to people in the workplace.

If I look at the actual game of marbles, it is amazing how many names there are for marbles.

Any marble larger than the majority may be termed a:
boulder, masher, popper, shooter, taw, crock, bumboozer, bowler, tonk, tronk, godfather, tom bowler, giant or biggie.

A marble smaller than the majority is a peawee or mini.

A grandfather is the largest marble, the size of a pool table ball or tennis ball.

You also have large marbles called Conqueror, emperor, grandaddy, grandpa, giant, godfather, jumbo, king, titanic, queenie.

Then you have marble names based on the color or coloring of the marble – for example –

• Toothpaste – wavy streaks usually with red, blue, black, white, orange
• Pearls – Opaque with single color with “mother of pearl” finish
• Onionskin – swirled and layered like an onion
• Cat’s Eye or catseye – central eye-shaped colored inserts or cores (injected inside the marble)
• Devil’s Eye – red with yellow eye
• Galaxy – lots of dots inserted like a sky of stars
• Spaghetti – marble with entwined lines
• Steelie – ball bearing used as marble

These are just a few. How many young kids do you know, that play marbles today. Have we lost this game, and the likes of knucklebones – to play station and Wii or X Box? Are we likely to ever get them back?

I would like to see a return to some of the hands on games that you can take into the playground, without having to be ‘plugged in’ or reliant on batteries.

I still have my marbles from when I was young. My kids played with them and added to them and we have kept all our marbles.

Can you say you still have all your marbles?