Archival Anecdotes: Who lost their marbles?

Don’t worry, we know exactly who these marbles belong to. This collection dates back to 1910 and belonged to Raymond V. Fertig, formerly of New Rockford.

Considering the number and variety of marbles in his collection, it seems safe to say that young Raymond enjoyed a good game or two of marbles in his day.

How do you play marbles you ask? It’s easy and great fun for folks of all ages. 

The first step is to make a circle three feet wide. You can do this outside with chalk, or inside with a string. 

The next step is choose your shooter marble. This is the largest marble in the pack. Can you see which one Raymond would have chosen?

Then place 5 -10 marbles in the center of the ring. When it’s your turn, kneel outside the ring and flick your shooter marble out of your fist with your thumb, aiming to hit as many marbles out of the ring as you can.

Each person gets to keep the marbles that they knock out and have another turn. If you don’t knock any marbles out of the ring, leave your shooter marble in the ring and wait your turn while the other players play.

Continue until the ring is empty. The winner is the player who has the most marbles at the end of the game. That’s all there is to it!