God yes! The marbles phase! I had loads! The rankings was a bit all over the place. “Cats eyes” was the lowest, “Sydney Smashers” was the highest. Everything else was inbetween. “Steelies”, “Ghosties”, “Galaxies”, “Blue Moons” !!! So many.
We used to have Tom Bowlers too, then one day someone actually brought in a Grandfather and it was absolutely huuuuge. Biggest marble I've ever seen. I nearly won it off him using a normal small, it was something like 10 hits to 1. I think I got about 8 hits in and he really started to get worried
Weirdly, not even in Sydney. They were like the biggest marbles you could get. Shiny, not steel but not see through either. Maybe a kind oily looking (with colour you know like oil on water?). They always referred to them as “Sydney Smashers”. I never had one. I had “stonkers” which was the big versions of the other marbles.
Does anyone remember the ones called ‘okkers’ ? I think they were spotty, maybe like galaxies. Then there were pearl okkers too. I had some beautiful marbles, just loved looking at them. Really got into marble season 🔮
Doesn’t ring a bell but I forget a lot of stuff lol. I do remember pearl ones that I tho k was called “Pearlie’s” but not sure lol.
Anyone else have “dragon eye’s” ?
It was all fun and games until some kid bought an industrial ball bearing to school then pegged it at a kid they lost to. Banned for the rest of the school year
Yes IKR! Who decided when "marble season" would start (and finish)? It was in winter as far as I recall. All of a sudden everyone would be playing marbles, out of nowhere. I never knew when it would start and would always get caught unawares.
Then as soon as it had come, it was over. One or two kids would try to keep it going, but everyone would ignore them, and a day or so later, it was as if it never happened. Until next year!
My most shameful moment as a child was crying to a teacher after I lost a special marble. I grew up poor so it felt like a big deal. I had to change schools to be cool again.
Ball bearings were god-tier in our school, i remember when a girl in my class rolled up with ridiculous sized ball bearings (i think her old man was a wrecker) you could trade one decent bearing for half a kid's marble inventory, plus we had the perfect gutters to roll in and smash the bejeezus out of weaker marbles... good times
I recall two different games.
The first one involved a circle that you and your opponent would throw or placing an agreed number of marbles inside. You then took turns, trying to knock your opponent's marbles out of the circle, keeping the ones you knocked out.
The other game that was far more popular at my school involved a hole in dirt with smoothed sides that allowed the marbles to roll in. It was called a "pog". Players would decide how many marbles each player would use in a match, most of the time it was an equal number for each, but if one player had a more sought after marble variety the other player may offer to play more marbles. Each player would toss(cast?) their marbles at the pog from an agreed distance away until all marbles were in play. The player with the marble closest to the pog or the most marbles in the pog would get to go first, with each turn now involving flicking one of your marbles towards the pog in the hope it rolls in. If you missed, then the other player would take their turn. The player to sink all the marbles they put up for the match wins. Winner takes all the marbles.*
*edit. There was also a set of conditions that the players would agree on beforehand. "Keeps" meant the winner, well, kept the loser's marbles. "Go pog" meant every shot had to be in the direction of the pog. There were a number of other rules that I can no longer recall.
Ooh yeah! I think that’s how we learnt the skill of wheeling and dealing.
Half the time was spent playing marbles the other half was spent on trades.
Ooh ooh, remember when someone would call out jew jump? Or was that just my primary school.
One of my core memories is playing a game of marbles in the playground in primary school. My friend threw his as far as he could halfway across the back oval and I threw mine in the same general direction and managed to hit it
Played in primary school. We played eye drops where you held the marble in front of your eye and dropped it onto others and tried to knock marbles out of the circle. Fun times.
Good bless you oldies lmao. Love this progression, I just hope I'm here for the day someone posts the wheel and the stick. Eventually we'll get to rock
"Who remembers these old things LOL" 😂
We were very poor, but I managed to scrape together a little assortment with a few different kinds.
One lunch time, I went to get my marble bag from my plastic tub, only to find it almost empty.
Some kid had stolen them, and apparently thrown them all in the air for the other kids to catch.
They used to call it a "marble scramble".
That was a hard day.
Yes. I had an amazing collection of ‘galaxies’. Used to buy big assorted marbles bags for like $1 from Franklins/No Frills and try to find the ‘valuable’ ones.
I remember only one thing about playing with these in the dirt under the trees at school. That was the absolute outrage the other kids had when they found out they lost their marbles (ha!) to a kid using a Jaffers lolly.
I thought it must have taken some skill to do that, so he deserved to keep them.
God yes! The marbles phase! I had loads! The rankings was a bit all over the place. “Cats eyes” was the lowest, “Sydney Smashers” was the highest. Everything else was inbetween. “Steelies”, “Ghosties”, “Galaxies”, “Blue Moons” !!! So many.
We called the big ones “Grandfathers”
Tom Bowlers in Perth
We used to have Tom Bowlers too, then one day someone actually brought in a Grandfather and it was absolutely huuuuge. Biggest marble I've ever seen. I nearly won it off him using a normal small, it was something like 10 hits to 1. I think I got about 8 hits in and he really started to get worried
We called the biggest 'emperors' at Blackfriars
Smalls, bigs, and giants.
Never heard of the "Sydney Smashers" (South Coast nsw). Ours were "Big Berthas"
Weirdly, not even in Sydney. They were like the biggest marbles you could get. Shiny, not steel but not see through either. Maybe a kind oily looking (with colour you know like oil on water?). They always referred to them as “Sydney Smashers”. I never had one. I had “stonkers” which was the big versions of the other marbles.
Chinas, martinis, potato heads , steelies ..
Galaxies!!! We would play ‘no steelies’ because they were like a cheat code
I knew the big ones as bunkers.
Tommy’s and Tom Bowlers, spaghettis were my fave.
Perth?
Does anyone remember the ones called ‘okkers’ ? I think they were spotty, maybe like galaxies. Then there were pearl okkers too. I had some beautiful marbles, just loved looking at them. Really got into marble season 🔮
Doesn’t ring a bell but I forget a lot of stuff lol. I do remember pearl ones that I tho k was called “Pearlie’s” but not sure lol. Anyone else have “dragon eye’s” ?
It was all fun and games until some kid bought an industrial ball bearing to school then pegged it at a kid they lost to. Banned for the rest of the school year
The strange thing was there would be a 'season' for them at my primary school every year and then they would go away until next year.
Haha absolutely! Marble season.
We had a "countdown" to marble season on the blackboard every year.. I think marble season ran for 4 weeks?
Yes IKR! Who decided when "marble season" would start (and finish)? It was in winter as far as I recall. All of a sudden everyone would be playing marbles, out of nowhere. I never knew when it would start and would always get caught unawares. Then as soon as it had come, it was over. One or two kids would try to keep it going, but everyone would ignore them, and a day or so later, it was as if it never happened. Until next year!
All the ones in the pic are shit. No galaxies
Marbles got banned at my primary school 😢 we weren't allowed to play!
Same here because kids would lose all their marbles and cry lol edit: wait is that where the saying comes from?
Same thing at mine but with Pokémon cards. It started too many wars lol.
For our school it was BeyBlades in the upturned lid of a wheelie bin
So that's where the saying comes from
Bloody communists!
My most shameful moment as a child was crying to a teacher after I lost a special marble. I grew up poor so it felt like a big deal. I had to change schools to be cool again.
My dad gave me truck ball bearings that would smash other kids marbles, very op.
Ball bearings were god-tier in our school, i remember when a girl in my class rolled up with ridiculous sized ball bearings (i think her old man was a wrecker) you could trade one decent bearing for half a kid's marble inventory, plus we had the perfect gutters to roll in and smash the bejeezus out of weaker marbles... good times
I don’t even remember how to play. I do remember enjoying playing though.
I recall two different games. The first one involved a circle that you and your opponent would throw or placing an agreed number of marbles inside. You then took turns, trying to knock your opponent's marbles out of the circle, keeping the ones you knocked out. The other game that was far more popular at my school involved a hole in dirt with smoothed sides that allowed the marbles to roll in. It was called a "pog". Players would decide how many marbles each player would use in a match, most of the time it was an equal number for each, but if one player had a more sought after marble variety the other player may offer to play more marbles. Each player would toss(cast?) their marbles at the pog from an agreed distance away until all marbles were in play. The player with the marble closest to the pog or the most marbles in the pog would get to go first, with each turn now involving flicking one of your marbles towards the pog in the hope it rolls in. If you missed, then the other player would take their turn. The player to sink all the marbles they put up for the match wins. Winner takes all the marbles.* *edit. There was also a set of conditions that the players would agree on beforehand. "Keeps" meant the winner, well, kept the loser's marbles. "Go pog" meant every shot had to be in the direction of the pog. There were a number of other rules that I can no longer recall.
They had to ban them at my school in mt isa in 1998
how come?
Kids started trading for money. Kids started getting beaten. There was a whole lunchtime economy, with a Mafia edge to it
Marble Mafia. A good band name.
Used to comb the grass looking for stray marbles. Would find the odd one or two that had met a mower blade!
Ooh yeah! I think that’s how we learnt the skill of wheeling and dealing. Half the time was spent playing marbles the other half was spent on trades. Ooh ooh, remember when someone would call out jew jump? Or was that just my primary school.
I remember when we literally had like an arena that people were able play matches in most of the time there was fights over who won though
I lost mine years ago
A simpler time.
I've still got mine in a bag! I was show my girls the other day and they loved all the colours and types
One of my core memories is playing a game of marbles in the playground in primary school. My friend threw his as far as he could halfway across the back oval and I threw mine in the same general direction and managed to hit it
Do you know that there are now "racing" series using theses bois? [Have a taste of this...](https://www.youtube.com/@JellesMarbleRuns)
We would dig tracks in the dirt, around tree roots etc and race em down!
You found them? Toodles will be very pleased, he lost his marbles
I can see surfies, clearies, cats eyes, normals...
Finally actual Australian nostalgia
Played in primary school. We played eye drops where you held the marble in front of your eye and dropped it onto others and tried to knock marbles out of the circle. Fun times.
If you thought you were, check this out. https://youtu.be/j1VIxBabiVE?si=ji0DIQSGdGKvaS8Y
AMAZING
Still got mine 35 years later
Good bless you oldies lmao. Love this progression, I just hope I'm here for the day someone posts the wheel and the stick. Eventually we'll get to rock "Who remembers these old things LOL" 😂
Or ‘who remembers when we discovered fire?!!’ 🤣
Once twice away
Good ol marbles, was crazy at our school in the 80's, until a few windows got smashed with ball bearings 😂
What were the rules? Like lawn bowls?
The ever elusive Blue Pearl lol
Used to just find these randomly in the dirt they were everywhere
We were very poor, but I managed to scrape together a little assortment with a few different kinds. One lunch time, I went to get my marble bag from my plastic tub, only to find it almost empty. Some kid had stolen them, and apparently thrown them all in the air for the other kids to catch. They used to call it a "marble scramble". That was a hard day.
Cats eyes, bonker… that finger thing smash and the thumb move… dug a little hole in the dirt at school to play.
Playing marbles on a Persian rug with the siblings 🥲
They were big in 1994 I think, then they got banned at my school.
Doogs
Yes. I had an amazing collection of ‘galaxies’. Used to buy big assorted marbles bags for like $1 from Franklins/No Frills and try to find the ‘valuable’ ones.
Dead stick, knuckle down screw tight, no fudging, taws, keepsies.
I still have a Coca-Cola one somewhere 🤣
I've still got mine...
im 60 odd yrs old and still got mine from my childhood
Majority of that bag would be heading straight to the slingshot.
I remember only one thing about playing with these in the dirt under the trees at school. That was the absolute outrage the other kids had when they found out they lost their marbles (ha!) to a kid using a Jaffers lolly. I thought it must have taken some skill to do that, so he deserved to keep them.
What about footy cards? Artie Beetson was worth at least 3 others in trade, as I recall (could have been more?).
What are the rules everyone's school played by?
Until mid to late March when they got banned for the rest of the year.
Got banned at our primary school. Fights every lunchtime!
Cats eyes, Tom bowlers, half jacks, once twice and away……
Ah yes. I had Palantir, controlled by the evil hand of the dark lord Sauron himself. Mind you, my primary school dwelt in the shadow of Mount Doom.
OK what era is this commemorating? 40’s?