Pre school we lived in the slums in an apartment that was built onto the roof of the tenement building, the floors were so sloped that none of my toy cowboy and indians or horses would stand unless going uphill or down. I would roll a marble up the hill and shoot it as it rolled back down. I started school and learned about shooting marbles for keeps, we played either chase or ring. You never played for keeps with your shooter, I had a highly prized aggy shooter my uncle had given me from his youth, I may still have it somewhere. We carried a bag of winnings and it was from that bag you paid your debts or threw into the ring. Playing for keepers was serious business because it could cost you your shooter, always using a lesser quality marble than my best shooter. Jerks came along with steelies that could shatter a marble, most of time steelies were not allowed, nobody much cared in the ring, they usually couldnt shot worth a darn anyway.
I developed a reputation early because like old Sundance the marble had to be moving so I could hit it, from my early practice on the floor of the roof we lived on. I got alot of "Hey, you gotta wait til it quits rolling." "If it quits rolling I cant hit it."
I loved playing marbles but seemed to outgrow it at school when we moved and I started the third grade, where games like tetherball, four square, were more the norm.
. Still have a couple medium size boxes of them in the hall closet.
