Marble Resurrection

“Clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunck, clunck, clunck.” I could hear them coming a mile away.

In they trooped, one after the other, flinging their bags from where the cluncking noise derived, on the floor.

“Hi mum!” they chorused, making a beeline to the fridge in search of their afternoon tea.

Afternoon tea was downed but they did not head to the cartoons. Because people, there is a new phenomenon going down and this is serious business: welcome back, the return of the marbles!

Out they come in their Click-Clack boxes (the source of the clunking noise – whatever happened to good old marble bags?) and they pore over their day’s wins, before heading off to the back lawn for their post-school sibling games.

It’s funny, I’ve had my marbles, mixed together with my dad’s from back in the 50s, sitting in his original named marble bag in a cupboard in Master Ten’s room since he was a toddler. Not knowing what they were for, he’s never shown any interest in them.

I’ve often thought about resurrecting the game but couldn’t remember the rules. Clearly someone else’s parent did for, one day several weeks ago, Master Ten marched in from school, by-passed the fridge, heading straight for the marble cupboard and it was game on. Suddenly they’ve realised the value of certain marbles and they are like gold. When they discovered their dad still had his childhood stash at his parent’s house, even better!

So holes have been dug up in the school playground – possibly the original holes their mother played in back in the 80s, albeit with new rules attached. These days they are to play ‘friendsies’ only. Apparently a handful of seniors were bending the rules by playing friendsies and keepsies when it suited, shafting the juniors out of their loot. However, after school, they are playing for keeps – hence the stash comparison upon homecoming.

“It teaches them some skills but needs a certain amount of supervision,” commented one teacher. “Because there is an element of gambling involved.”

True that but, oh great, yet another childhood favourite game that has gone all pc. Anyhow, there’s no stopping them.

This morning: “Bye mum!” yelled Master Eight bang on 8am.

“Why are you going so early?” I asked.

“Because Kelvin is giving me a King this morning.”

A King is one of the top marbles, in case you didn’t know. Followed by Queen, I would imagine. Then there’s Granddaddies, Bonkers, Galaxy, Swirlies, Pearls … Oh it’s all coming flooding back now.

So while I’m still kicking myself for not being the cool parent to re-introduce this trend, I’m meanwhile conjuring up the resurrection of another couple of old childhood favs: if you notice Elastics and Knuckle Bones out in full swing, you know who started it!