I remember playing the game of marbles a few doors down at my friend Kevin’s house. There would be a few friends that gathered, and we would bring whatever marbles we had to win.
It wasn’t my favorite game and I wasn’t very lucky I lost more then I won! I don’t recall how it was played looking back, but it was just one of the games we played at the time, board games were more the thing back then and we did that a lot outside of Kevin’s house.
One game popular in the United Kingdom and United States is ring taw (or “ringer”) where a ring is drawn on the ground and a number of small marbles placed within it. Players take turns to flick a larger “taw” marble at these marbles, attempting to knock them out of the ring.
Choose your shooter marble- this is your largest marble in the pack. Put 5 -10 marbles in the center of the ring. When it’s your turn, kneel outside the ring and flick your shooter marble out of your fist with your thumb, aiming to hit many marbles out of the ring. Keep the marbles you knock out and have another turn.
These are a few of the many types of marbles made, Ade – strands of opaque white and color, making lemon-ade, lime-ade, orange-ade, etc. Cat’s eye or catseye – central eye-shaped colored inserts or cores (injected inside the marble) Beachball – three colors and six vanes Devil’s eye – red with yellow eye,
illustration by: RetroClipart
Information background Credit: Wikpedia.org
Photolitherland, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons




One response to “Shooting Marbles ~ 1950’s”
Sounds like fun! We need to go back to simpler times, board games, card games, puzzles. Wholesome times with face to face interactions instead of screens.