I've always loved marbles. I remember kids playing with them in primary school. I envied them.
My grandfather bought me my first bag of marbles. They were a christmas or birthday gift from down south. I didn't quite know what to do with them. They were strange milky-white ones with green, blue and tan streaked through them. Sadly, mostly they lived in their bag.
Then mum went to a shop in London which specialised in either marbles, or marbles and beads. Can't remember which. She bought *lovely* marbles. Black with primary colours speckled on them, metalic shiny ones. Metalic ones with small specks of other colours embedded in them.
Somewhere along the line I picked up some of the standard glass with a colour through it, and I may even have visited a marble shop in London when I was twelve.
But the one I remember best was a strange white, red and black marble with a chunk out of it. It was unique in my collection, and had an interesting heft to it. The other marbles were either flash and slightly intimidating, or I didn't think they were special or indeed very nice. But this one was one I could have all to myself (it even wasn't very good at rolling which meant it stayed where I left it).
Posted by carla at February 1, 2008 09:18 PM