A magazine I subscribe to "Antiques Trader" (highly recommended for antique buffs) recently featured an article on marbles, the first mass produced tow in the world, made in Akron, Ohio. I found this quote on wages interesting.....

quote:

"Labor cost 2 and a half pennies an hour. The US going wage in the 1880s was about two pennies per hour. An individual could make 6000 marbles an hour. Working 10 hours, 6 days a week, one person could make 60.000 marbles in a week." explains Michael Cahill, director of the Am. Toy Marble Museum in Akron, ohio

At the time, marbles sold for 5 for a penny. Also at the time, the S.C. Dyke company was shipping a million marbles a day by train. Not a bad way to make a lot of money, a penny at a time.

After I grew up I went back to my parents house in search of my marble bag & it's contents.
Seems my older brother had laid claim to them ahead of me.
So I guess I truly lost my marbles.
By the way, I had probably confiscated the bag & some of it's contents from him many years earlier.

I wonder how you all played marble.

We played in groups of up to 6.

We dug holes in hard ground. These holes were about 10 feet apart, in a straight line. They were about 2-2.5 inches in diameter, and slightly over an inch in depth.

Each hole is assigned to a player, and the object of the game is for him to get his marble in it.

That is his first objective.

Once he has done that, he can then try to get into the holes of other players. If he succeeds before them, he gets a marble.

He can also try to hit other players marbles. If he does hit one, he gets a marble, and that player is out of the game.

quote:

We dug holes in hard ground. These holes were about 10 feet apart, in a straight line. They were about 2-2.5 inches in diameter, and slightly over an inch in depth.

We almost played the same way but used only one hole and you could knock the others guys marble out of the way with yours.

I have a friend that collects doll houses.(takes all kinds). While perusing a shop in Huntsville she saw several that were made by inmates. One that caught her attention + was quite good + considered buying;then looked at the mfg. Henry Lee Lucas. She could'nt leave the store fast enough. I told her that it should turn out to be valuable over the years but she said,"I don't care."