Games We Played
as Children
Games with Marbles
In these games, often considered
games for boys, players shoot their marbles--small, colored glass balls--at
their opponents' marbles. It they hit the other marbles, they win them.
Traditionally, games of marbles have been played in countries all over
the world, including Turkey, Cyprus, and Indonesia.
Marbles
Hakan Tuncer from Turkey
Marbles is a well-know game
in the world. I think it was my first competition when I was 6 years old.
Having lots of marbles was a sign of power. We had different colorful marbles,
and some of them were our favourite marbles. Even if we did not have enough
money, we tried to save our money to buy more marbles.
Actually, I do not remember
how it began that we used to play this game when we were in primary school,
but we played the game differently, depending on who played with whom.
I imagine different cultures and different countries have different rules
for playing.
HOW WE PLAYED
Before beginning the game,
we drew a triangle. The size depended on the number of marbles we had.
After putting all our marbles into the triangle, we shot our favorite marble
at the others so that we could win some marbles by throwing the others
out of the triangle. It continued until all the marbles were gone.
WHY WE PLAYED
I think the important thing
was to have as many marbles as we could. Ther was quite a competition to
win the most marbles., so we practiced in our free time. The one of us
who won the most marbles was the leader of the group, and everyone tried
to be the leader. Now I realize that this small competition was our first
experience with power and leadership.
Peirilia
Yiannis Tziortzis from Cyprus
Bit by bit from the deepest
part of my memory, I can see my self at the end of a tunnel as a child.
Sometimes when I'm alone and trying to relax, I remember things I did when
I was a child.
As a kid, I used to play
a lot of games with my friends, especially in the summer when the weather
was good and we had a lot of time because we didn't have school. Late in
the afternoon when the sun was down and the climate not too hot, every
kid in my neighborhood was playing a game. One of the best games we used
to play is marbles. As I remember, we had a lot of fun playing that game.
HOW WE PLAYED IT
Every player had to bring
6 marbles. Then we drew a triangle in the middle of the yard. We put the
marbles in the middle of the triangle with 2 centimeters space between
each one. Then we counted to feet and made a line. The game started.
Now you are going to ask
me how we played the game. First of all, you had to go back to the triangle
and throw one of your marbles. You took one from the triangle.
You had to throw it as near
the line as you could. The player whose marble was nearest to the line
played first.
When you all finished throwing,
the player who had his marble nearest to the line started first. His goal
was to throw his marble and kick some other marbles out of the triangle.
The winner of the game was the player who took all the marbles from the
other players. I would like to play that game again. I would like to feel
like a kid again, but I think I can't.
Kelereng
Hasanuddin Rachman from
Indonesia
Kelereng, an Indonesian game
of marbles, is a children's game for two players or more. The main equipment
is a set of marbles; ie., small, round and solid stuff, usually transparent
and of different colors. One set of marbles is placed at the center of
an approximately 10- by 15 square foot ground or floor arena, in the form
of a triangle or square. "The number of marbles may vary from 2 to 8 or
even more, depending on the number of players and agreement among them.
Each game may last from 20 to 30 minutes.
HOW THIS GAME IS PLAYED
Each player has his or her
own shooter marble to shoot the set. Shooting is done by placing the shooter
marble between the index finger and the thumb and moving the thumb outward
to shove the shooter marble in order to hit the marbles in the set. Player
number one starts the game by shooting at the set and goes on playing until
he/she misses hitting any of the marbles from the set. Then, it is the
other player's turn to shoot the set. Each player temporarily keeps any
marbles that he/she can hit and move out of the triangle or square.
The final session the game
is scary. All the players take turns to beat each other. If a player's
shooter marble gets hit, he/she loses and must give his/her temporary wins
to the one who hits him/her. At the end of the game, the winner takes all.
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