Photo: mirror.co.uk
Glass Ball Poker
Dust puthered as the circle was scribed
center marked with a fat Tom Bowler
all the doogs are out,
aggies and cats eyes at the ready
tension holds the air
everyone is breathing shallow
strategies forming
a serious gamble
hopes running high,
someone will win the lot,
most will lose
perhaps their favourite,
dreams will be dashed,
glass ball poker
high roller stakes
before the siren,
life’s mnemonic.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
I remember playing marbles as a kid grade 5ish I think. Now I wonder how the heck we flicked them without it hurting lol
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Oh, I remember bruised fingers lol. Thank you.
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Me too and most welcome.
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🙂
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That brings back fond memories, Paul.
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Yes, as soon as I saw the prompt image I was right back there 🙂
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…strategies forming, unlike today’s video games.
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Yes!
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I can remember playing with marbles as a kid, but that was not nearly as much fun as flipping baseball cards or knocking them down from the wall.
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Yes, for me it was a year of intensity, then on to sport.
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lol memories of the tension of the high rollers and that damned school bell, great depiction … look what the kids today are missing out on, poor deprived babies 🙂
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Yes, I wonder about the loss of such games, had so much fun.
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elastics, bones, all gone 😦
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ah knuckle bones, elastics yes, all gone now. though you can still buy marbles.
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didn’t know that, I haven’t seen them about 🙂
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Toyworld sell them
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lol had no reason to visit, no wonder I didn’t see them … do you spend much time there 😎
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Our local one has a lot of other stuff, like board games and adult card games etc, and I saw them there.
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I pick those things up at the op shops, heaps cheaper 🙂
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True, and we do that, but sometimes specific items are too recent to be in an op shop, sadly.
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you’d be surprised ….
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I would be if it was new, I tried to find a card set some years ago, and I plotted its arrival at the op shop at around 18 months, but sometimes things are more niche. I’m fortunate as I have one on my own doorstep 🙂
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lol I’d forgotten that, do you get an insider discount 😎
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I could, but I wouldn’t it would be counter to my ethics, but they sometimes let me know if there’s something I might like – usually a book 🙂
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Aww this poem of yours made me so nostalgic Paul.We used to play a lot of glass marbles while growing up.
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Ah, such fun, glad it was such nice nostalgia
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Indeed.
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More sore thumbs than sore losers. Ahh memories.
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Yes, I remember the sore thumbs. Yes it was a generous game with very few sore losers.
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wonderful! Oh the hours we spent playing marbles.
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Yes, such open hearted fun, thank you VJ
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Most welcome
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Paul this is really good––I felt drawn in to the game. Is that your photo? Goes so well with the poem!
Blessings to you, and all the best.
Debbie
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Many thanks Debbie. No its an archive photo from the UK Mirror. I’m glad you felt drawn into the game 🙂
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Thank you for this piece of nostalgia! Brought back memories of my brother. Love the slingshot in the young boy’s pocket! I can remember us making fastenings from the discarded inner tubes of bikes. Such fun days!
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Yes, we used bicycle inner-tube for that, lol, everything was repurposed back then. I gather by the way you said that it was happy nostalgia?
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Absolutely! The boys would go out with their slingshots and try and knock fruit off trees. Different way of enhancing eye hand co-ordination … the innocence of childhood.
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Yes, it was an innocent time.
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Memories … I used to be a champ at marbles! Always gave back the ones I won, except one time … the most beautiful blue cat’s eye … sigh. 😉
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Yes, most of us gave them back, it was poor form to be greedy. I kept a ball bearing because that was considered a specialty. I bet you were sharp? 🙂
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We played with marbles and had also a strange game: “Kibbel-kabbel” , which is related to cricket .
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Games were such fun, so innocent.
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Ah Paul, this brings back memories. Aggie’s and Cat’s Eyes. Brilliant.
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Such fun, thank you for sharing that.
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Love this post. Brings out plenty of good old memories.
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Nothing like memories, we sure connect when we look back, many thanks Kally.
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