... and how/where does the act of breaking open Codds patents to get
the marble out fit in ...?
Sincerely
GrahamK
____________________________________________
"Your work may still be effective in ages to come,
when all that I have done is forgotten." W.M.F. Petrie
On 01 Nov 2005, at 2:27pm, Carol Serr wrote:
> <Snip>
>
> What I don't grasp...is how do perfectly Good marbles end up in the
> trash (we dig up)? Did parents throw them out so kids wouldn't play
> (gamble) with them? I know...usually we only find a few, not a whole
> bag full, but still...I don't throw out anything that still has a use.
> But um, I know I'm an exception...
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Ron May [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 8:21 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: marbles and jacks
>>
>>
>> As Carol Serr noted, I authored a manuscript titled "Marbles for the
>> Archaeologist" in 1979 and had every intention of publishing
>> the results. I made up
>> questionnaires and went around to bars and honky tonks asking
>> people to help
>> me by answering the questions. All the old barflies got tears
>> in their eyes
>> telling their tales of marble shooting, some as early as
>> before World War I.
>> Some of those folks got really defensive and I soon learned
>> that the same
>> pieces of glass, clay, and stone were assigned different
>> names in various
>> locations across America. More importantly, marble types
>> passed out of favor among
>> children groups, which means that archaeologists cannot assume
>> all marbles had
>> the same value in all time periods. As glass marble machines
>> pumped out
>> mass-produced marbles, kids continued the practice of naming
>> the new glass colors
>> and applying values. Early ones that looked like aggies
>> (agate) were called
>> immies (imitation) and were highly valued in the 1920s, but
>> had lower value
>> when colored immies came into being in the mid 1930s. Clay
>> marbles were
>> relegated to the bottom of the value system by the 1940s.
>> Marble makers came and
>> went, as did the mix of colors. Foreign marbles are another
>> part of the mix.
>> Kids really do not care where the marbles are made and have
>> zero loyalty for
>> American companies. Cheap scrap glass marbles from Japan,
>> Taiwan, Indonesia, and
>> Mexico changed the composition of marbles by the 1960s and later. The
>> important thing to know is that marble values changed over
>> time. And, there is a
>> social history of marble players that is slightly different
>> from one region to
>> another. In spite of attempts by fascist school regimes and
>> strict parents,
>> kids are still playing marbles in secret sand lots.
>>
>> Ron May
>> Legacy 106, Inc.
>> "Now, if I can just find that dang paper Carol Serr mentioned."
>>
>
>
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