Interesting discussion. Now for some trouble. Would you agree that 
GENERALLY speaking:

                 Marbles = little boys
                 "Jacks" =  little girls

We have found both recently and have had a number of field discussions 
(older peoples' memories) on this question.

                                                         R.L. Schuyler

P.S. In the late 1940s and 1950s we had marbles and although I had some I 
never played the game. I do not remember
my friends "playing marbles" as an every day event. Also remember flipping 
bottle caps but this was also not that common. What I do remember doing was 
taking the cork liners out of all bottle caps - why ??? probably a mental 
aberration. It just had to be done.

At 04:36 PM 10/31/2005, you wrote:
>Tim
>
>No tiddlywinks in excavations but the plastic pastel blue and red ones seem
>to form one of the major classes of items I see when I'm crawling around
>below floors of extant houses.  They were the perfect function and form for
>locating and sliding down any cracks in the house.
>
>While on obscure uses of crown bottle caps, is there a non-Australian
>version of the lagerphone?  This is a stick [broomhandle size] covered with
>nailed on crown caps and bounced up and down for a particularly gormless
>tinkling sound that is much loved by bush bands.  It is as stereotypical as
>a hat with corks on it [is there no end to Australians' cleverness with
>bottle closures!].  Do lagerphones exist in other countries with other
>names?
>
>Denis
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tim Thompson" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Tuesday, November 01, 2005 8:15 AM
>Subject: Re: Crown Caps
>
>
> > Ron,
> >
> > seems to me Little Rascals films are the equivalent of Noel Hume
> > consulting Dutch genre paintings. Marbles were dying out in North Florida
> > in the late fifties, and I don't remember flicking bottle caps, but it
> > does  sound a bit like Tiddley Winks, the passion of prawns a couple of
> > generations previously. Anybody ever found Tiddley Winks in an excavation?
> >
> > Tim T.
> > reluctant gamester
> >
> >

Robert L. Schuyler
University of Pennsylvania Museum
3260 South Street
Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324

Tel: (215) 898-6965
Fax: (215) 898-0657
[log in to unmask]