The other day, I was sitting around contemplating the great mysteries of life when I was struck by an unsettling thought. We all know that every game you can think about has a club in The Villages. That is, except as far as I can determine, the most ancient of games in the entire world. Now, I could be wrong perhaps there is such a club and I have just not noted it. If I am wrong then I deserve to be whipped with a wet noodle. The most ancient of games that I am referring to is quite obviously marbles. The good old archeologists have found evidence of the game in ancient Egypt and among the Sumerians. Even the cave people apparently played. hey found rounded stones that they in their wisdom have determined were used for the game.
In ancient Rome and Greece they used walnuts to play the game – which must have been erratic at best. I imagine the Indians in Pennsylvania likely used horse chestnuts for that purpose although I imagine they took the shells off first. Indians were tough, but the shell of the horse chestnut has spines on it. I recall as a kid joining my friends in using horse chestnuts to hollow out and make a pipe, but we never played marbles with them. Horse chestnuts in the event that you grew up in the wrong area are known as buckeyes in some places. I guess that Ohio State did not want to be known as the Fighting Horse Chestnuts, although I think that would be a pretty neat name.
As I have pointed out, marbles go way back, but they did not always have a clean reputation. For example, back in the 1500’s, Nuremberg, Germany decreed that the game could not be played within the city limits. Thus, the players who were undoubtedly a bunch of ruffians who may have gambled on outcomes, had to go out into the country to find a place where they could draw a circle. That was not the case when I was growing up as we were permitted to draw a circle in the dirt wherever we wanted. Then, we would usually play a game of “keepsies”, which meant that you could lose all your marbles. (OK, I am aware that some folks think that I lost my marbles many years ago, but that is not relevant here). We tried not to lose as finding money to buy more marbles was not easy in those days. You particularly did not want to lose your prized “shooter” which could happen if you got desperate.
The Blonde in the house says she never played, but she used to bug her brother when he did. As with most things some of the marbles from our day are now valuable, especially some of the “shooters”. They even have a yearly auction in Denver, PA and some other places where collectors congregate and bid. The highest bid so far amounted to $27,730 on a particular marble. Not a bad return on something that probably originally cost less than a penny. Such a thought makes you cuss that your Mom threw out your old marbles along with your comic book collection. Life is not always fair.
However, to go back to the original thought which relates to the fact that there does not seem to be a powerhouse marbles group in The Villages. The sports pages are full of Villagers who win all sort of championships in various games, but I have never seen one for marbles. What’s more is that there has been a national championship tournament that has been played in Wildwood since 1922. Alright, that is Wildwood, NJ, but that is not too far to go for a national championship. There has been a World Championship in Tinsey Green, England since 1932, and there is a World Marble Federation Championship that is held in Prague every few years. I don’t know which is truly the world championship, but dedicated Villagers could go for both.
Now if someone wants to go for the championship, I might be able to find my old “shooter” (and then I may not). In any case I feel this is an area where The Villages needs to stand up and be counted!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com
