Old Games-Memories

When the husband and I take our afternoon walks we will often come across coins, broken jewelry, lost keys and more. But what I like to find is marbles. It's rare but I have found a few. When I pick a marble up, I will always say "Someone is loosing their marbles".  I have no clue why I find them because I'm pretty sure they are not needed in any of the video game kids play now days.


I still have a bag of old marbles. Some are mine and some are my husbands from when we were kids.

I remember playing marbles when I was younger. It's started by drawing a ring in the dirt with your finger or stick. Each player would throw in a few of their own marbles into the center of the ring. Each player also had a "Shooter" marble which was larger than the marbles in the center. We always had our lucky shooter. Each player took turns thumping there shooter into the ring and try to knock out the other player's marbles. They also got to keep the marbles they knocked out. This led to going home with either more marbles than you had or less. It was sort of a gamble. But it was fun.

As I was cleaning out some old games from the TV hutch the other day, I came across some old Jack Rocks. These were not the large plastic ones you see in the stores today. These are the tiny metal ones that would scar your foot for life if you ever stepped on one barefooted.


I used to play with these things all the time. I remember the back side of my pinkie finger would be raw and even bleed at times from sweeping my hand across the pavement. You would start with collecting one, then two and so forth until you were able to grab all ten jacks in on sweep before the ball bounced. You do not see that being played by kids anymore either.

Another game I came across while cleaning..... wait.....let me back up...It really has not been that long since I have cleaned. I was just going through some old small games I had stashed away.
I found a box of Old Maid cards and a can of "Pick up Sticks". These were all simple and fun games we enjoyed as a kid. I think I'll hang on to them for the next generation.

Do you remember old games you used to play? Do you still have them?

7 comments

  1. I had marbles, but never played them right. I also had jacks, but was horrible at it and lost interest. I was pretty decent at pick up sticks. Mine as a kid were wooden. I wish I had kept them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Boy, I wish I had some of the beautiful marbles I collected when I was a kid. I wonder what I did with those?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am smiling, mama did not like it if I played 'for keeps'. Yep she knew that was gambling and would someday lead to dancing! hahahah.
    I am sure she knew I played 'for keeps' because I had a large collection.
    Anyway I think you named all the games my sister taught me. I liked jacks, but like Elizabeth above, I was better at pickup sticks.
    Sherry just chimed in she liked Jack rocks and hop scotch. and jump rope.
    Good one! I bet Brother Nick was a marble shooter with a 'steelie'.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jacks, marbles and pick up sticks, what nostalgia!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I played those same games, Lisa, even though I am older than you. My best shooter was a "steelie" and it probably came out of some machine. lol

    I also played a lot of Chinese Checkers and was really good at that. Jump rope, Mother May I, Statues and others. Tag & hide and seek were always biggies, too. xo Diana

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have quite a few marbles and have them in old mason jars around the house.
    Love to play jacks and used to all the time. I've played all the games you mentioned.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I loved playing jacks!!! This was our favorite game when we went to visit my grandmother. We would all sit together on her kitchen floor and play for hours - thank for the reminder!!!

    ReplyDelete