We also had "steelies" in several sizes.  I don't really know where
they came from since I never saw them in the store.  Most kids had
several at one time or another.

Smoke.

On 10/31/05, Ron May <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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."
>


--
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---