Playing Marbles

[Longcol 597]

12 hours ago, trastrick said:

 I don't think anybody has mentioned that the big mabs were called "bottlies" or "glassies" and were banned from games where precious blood allys were used.

 

No stonks, no bottlies, no ballbarians.

Called "tolleys" when I was a kid in Doncaster in the 50's.

[trastrick 866]

Spring was a wonderful time for kids.

 

On some kind of unwritten schedule,  whips and tops appeared, hopscotch squares were drawn ont' causey, mabs came out, touch burners were made,  plastic wire bracelets, kick the can (an early mating ritual), blue bell picking, and there was pancake day and hot cross buns.

 

Rinse and repeat.

Edited January 11, 2021 by trastrick

[Jim117 72]

Never heard of stonks or bottlies trastric but ballbarians gave me a laugh, never thought I’d hear that one again! By blood allys do you mean the ones which were white rather than clear? If so they were prized by us too and if lost they would be ransomed back for an agreed number of lesser mabs.

[trastrick 866]

14 hours ago, Longcol said:

Called "tolleys" when I was a kid in Doncaster in the 50's.

I think  they were called "bottlies" because I believe they originated as some kind of bottle stoppers on some old bottles.

 

But that was even before my time!

[carosio 186]

16 hours ago, hillsbro said:

I know how you feel, echo beach, I can't remember any of it either. Are we losing our marbles? 🤨

In case any of us can't remember what they look like, here's a pic of one

 

[hillsbro 28]

1 hour ago, trastrick said:

I think  they were called "bottlies" because I believe they originated as some kind of bottle stoppers on some old bottles.  But that was even before my time!

Yes - they were for Codd-neck bottles.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codd-neck_bottle

It was before my time as well. Honest it was ...🙂

[trastrick 866]

23 minutes ago, hillsbro said:

Yes - they were for Codd-neck bottles.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codd-neck_bottle

It was before my time as well. Honest it was ...🙂

Sorted as usual, by our resident antiquarian!

 

Thanks Hillbro.

[DavidFrance 19]

On 08/01/2021 at 14:30, Blackburnrod said:

I started playing mabs when I went to Sharrow Lane Juniors in 1946 aged 7+. I can't remember where my first marbles came from, probably a pack of a dozen bought from Allott's newsagents. All the terminology alluded to in the original post was familiar to me. I was it seems quite skillful, playing in the schoolyard behind the toilet block, and on the cobbles of Franklin Street. By the time I left for King Teds after 11+ I had amassed over 800 mabs, which I gave to my mother, then a teacher in the Junior school. to distribute amongst her pupils. Happy days!

I find it hard to believe your mother allowed you to play on the cobbles of Franklin St, Rod, but it would have been that experience which would have given you, as it did so many of us, the antibodies that have kept us alive all these years. Playing in the muck, in my case in the cobbles of Stemp St, along the kerbs where dogs left their mark, making pitch balls on hot summer days, must have imbued us with all the germs we were ever likely to encounter....until now.   And a tin bath in front of the fire on a Friday night (whether you were mucky or not) wouldn't have erased the pathogens, although in your case it's most unlikely you needed a tin bath in Ventnor Place (ha-ha) .  Hankies?   Who needed them? Mrs Robinson had a ready supplies of Izal toilet paper for that and I dare say so did your mum.   Air pollution?   Life was a succession of industrial smells be it the fumes from the school's coke boiler, the waft of brewery ale (especially at Denby St nursery) or the penetrating stench of hot metal from a multitude of furnaces and milling machines.   And the luxurious scent of newly baked breadcakes from Topham's by way of appetite raising contrast.   Life was very, very good.  And better. 

On 11/01/2021 at 09:39, trastrick said:

Spring was a wonderful time for kids.

 

On some kind of unwritten schedule,  whips and tops appeared, hopscotch squares were drawn ont' causey, mabs came out, touch burners were made,  plastic wire bracelets, kick the can (an early mating ritual), blue bell picking, and there was pancake day and hot cross buns.

 

Rinse and repeat.

Brilliant!

[sharpend 11]

Fog - for going first. Very bad form to shout/say this if you were away from the playing area.

 

Also - used to say "Seg" for second.

 

As in

 

"fog" "Seg"

 

I don't recall their being a call for being third.

[Janner 10]

Weren't marbles sometimes called Allies/Allys ? Before the war we used to play marbles like golf is played, we dug little holes in the grass verge of the pavement, whoever got round in the least shots, won.