The Museum of Me was supposed to open last Friday with a new exhibit, but it was unexpectedly closed due to a plumbing emergency. Really, I forgot all about this month's prompt, but I did get recruited into being the gofer for John the Plumber while he cleared a bathroom sink clog. That's another fun story for another day.
The plumbing is now working and the Museum is open, so please enter and follow the docent to the left so you can view the March exhibit - Something You Collect.
Strictly speaking, I didn't really collect these marbles. My grandfather, mother, and my kids did, and I'm just the person who keeps them in jars on the windowsill so the sun can shine through them. My grandfather had a few of these that he used to actually play marbles with. My mother started playing marbles at some point in her life and added to the collection. It was a great rainy-day activity to sort through them with my cousins and we would each pick out our favorites. We didn't really understand how to play marbles and were terrible at shooting them. Nobody else was interested when we cleaned out my grandparents' house, so I gladly brought them home with me, where they entertained my boys for several years. Ryan and Justin also enjoyed dumping them out and choosing their favorites. The local toy store used to have small bags of marbles for sale inexpensively, and we added a few of those to the collection.
There aren't any especially rare or valuable marbles here, but that just means that they're much more fun to dump out of the jars and sort through. My favorite is probably the big blue, pitted one in the second row, second from the left. I like the color and my grandfather used to tell me it was his favorite shooter. There are two clay marbles directly to the right of the big blue shooter that my boys dug out of the dirt in the back yard, in addition to the old grayish-white marble above the clay ones. I can still remember how thrilled Ryan and Justin were to find these and how they came running into the house to tell me about the old treasures they had dug up. The rest of the marbles are just varying colors, sizes, and shininess, except for the two in the far lower right. Those are round and most likely plastic, but they aren't marbles. Justin liked to hide them in the jars so he could hear me exclaim, "How did these get in the jar? These are not marbles!" Maybe I'll ask him that tonight when he gets home.
Thank you for visiting the Museum of Me for the collection that I didn't really collect. The Museum of Me exhibits will be changed monthly on the second Friday of the month, so please stop by again in April for the next carefully curated installation. (The gift shop is on the right on your way out!)
I have a big jar of marbles that my brother and I collected and played with when we were kids. My brother has the other half (the larger half) of them. We had a lot of marbles! I remember we originally saved them in a large New Orleans Pralines box, but who knows where that went. Do you have any cat's eye marbles? They are my favorite. Thanks for this post that reminds me of great childhood memories, Bonny, and allows me to visit the museum of you.
ReplyDeleteOh, Bonny! Those are some really awesome marbles you've got there! And they have such an interesting history, too. I have always loved marbles . . . not to play with (because I never understood the game), but to look at! I had a few I "collected" when I was a kid, but they are long gone. Several years ago, I wanted to draw marbles for an art class . . . so I went out and bought a bag (which you saw in my photo the other day). I love having them nearby . . . even though they're just a bag from World Market that I bought for $2.99!!! Marbles are FUN.
ReplyDeleteI never played marbles but always loved the look of them. Something about all the colors, which I know you understand. I like the idea of jars of them in a window for the sun to stream through!
ReplyDeleteThese are just fabulous, Bonny! (And I love the jars they are in!) I think that they are so lovely in those old jars! Kym is right... Marbles are just fun! (but thank you for that link to how to play marbles, because I never knew!)
ReplyDeleteOh gosh! My brothers and I had a ton of marbles and I wish I still had some. I love the idea of having them in a jar where they will catch the sunlight. I may need to do what Kym did - buy some and keep them in a jar in my office.
ReplyDeleteSee that one on the top left? We would have boiled that one and then dropped it into ice water so it would crack (craze). I don't remember what we did with them, but for a while, it was "A THING".
ReplyDeleteYou always bring back loads of memories for me. I didn't collect, but did love the steelies or the blue tigers eye...cats eye...I can't remember the exact names, but with 6 siblings few things were ever mine (for long). Thank you for sharing your generational marbles!
ReplyDeleteI used to LOVE playing marbles in grade school, and I was pretty good, as I recall, but I can't remember a thing about how to play now. My mom collected marbles and had a big jar of those clay ones. My kitchen counter lamp base is a Mason jar full of marbles... also my mother's!
ReplyDeleteI sometimes use a ziploc bag of marbles as a weight to get the water out of my tofu before cooking it!
ReplyDeleteI can remember my mother playing marbles with my oldest brother but I never played myself. These are really cool and it's great that they have memories attached to them, too.
ReplyDeleteMy mother had a big jar of marbles and she knew how to play. I think one of my brothers has it. I never learned how to play, but I loved sorting through them and looking at the various colors.
ReplyDeleteI can't find anybody to play marbles with me :-), but I do enjoy seeing the colors glow when the sun shines through them on the windowsill.
DeleteMy dad had quite the marble collection when he was a kid and it stayed with my grandparents. Did John tell you about those plastic ones?
ReplyDeleteOh what fun. My brothers had marbles although I'm not sure they played marbles. Like your boys, the marbles were mostly for collecting, counting, and some trading with friends.
ReplyDeletewhat an awesome collection and I love the history. My son has a collection of marbles somewhere in a box somewhere in the attic... I collect yarn but it's not aa neat as marbles :)
ReplyDeleteJustin! So funny. That marble collection is a true keepsake. As we move through painting all the rooms I'm the mover of things. Putting my hands on possessions like that here really do make for a fine day.
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