When I was about 7 in 1955 in Omaha, boys played with marbles and
YoYos and girls jumped rope, hopscotched and played with dolls &
Jacks.  We would often "liberate" their jacks for use as tank traps
with plastic army men.  We also built zip guns out of old gunstocks or
broom sticks with plain metal pipe as a barrel and empty lipstick
containers for cartridges.  When we could not get M-80s or cherry
bombs for powder, we cut off the heads of matches and ground them up
to stick in the lipstick cases. We never got a firearm that would
actually hit anything but the BOOM was highly satisfactory to a 7 year
old.  Base ball was the top spot if you could find enough kids who had
gloves, a ball or the very expensive, real "Louisville Slugger",
wooden bat.

Smoke

On 10/31/05, Christopher Murphy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>    Its interesting to see the geographical variation and variation over
> time (and I dare say of personal experience).  In Savannah, Georgia in the
> late forties and early fifties, it was definitely marbles and yoyos for
> boys.  Girls played jacks and hopscotch, both could play dodgeball, but a
> guy messing with jacks was setting himself up to be called a "sissy".
>
>    Chris Murphy
>
>
>
> James Brothers wrote:
>
> > Well consulting with my daughters they are of the opinion that
> > generally marbles are essentially male. But that jacks can be both.
> > although primarily female (but that no one plays either much
> > anymore). This matches my own recollection of my childhood. Boys did
> > play jacks but not that much. Girls did a lot. Marbles on the other
> > hand and yo-yos were big for guys.
> >
> > On Oct 31, 2005, at 16:56, Robert L. Schuyler wrote:
> >
> > > 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.
>


--
Smoke Pfeiffer
845 Cagle Rock Road
Russellville, Ar. 72802

"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity."
---Sigmund Freud, General Introduction to Psychoanalysis---