Marble weather

In Munising Spring would start to show its face in April . The sun obviously stood a little higher in the sky. It rays began to pack some strength. We still had snowstorms, but the old adage of April showers bring May flowers is especially true along the southern shores of Lake Superior.

While the snow banks still were quite tall their appearance became ugly. The means of keeping streets passable during the time of winter was to plow the road and spread sand for traction. As time wore on and plows continued to pile snow on the banks there was a build up of sand mixed in with the snow. As the snow melted the sand was exposed and you got this dirty brown appearing snow bank. The sand could become so heavy that it retarded the melting of the bank. So often time the snow in the yards might melt to bare ground yet along the streets the snow banks remained several feet high.

Water running off the streets under cut the ice along the curb and a combination of freezing and melting made for quite an ice build up in the gutters. As a result we kids made a game out of walking along and breaking small ice shelves by stomping on them with our feet. The broken ice would form a small dam and the water would back up, refreezing at night and the process would begin anew the next day.

It is in this setting that my favorite spring rite took place. The playing of marbles.

There were two types of games as I recall. One was called circles the other pots. Circles was simply a game with a circle of sufficient diameter drawn on the soft ground and then kids took turns using a "shooter" to knock marbles out of the circle. There was an ante, it was usually some agreed to number of marbles each play put at risk in the circle. You had to get the "shooter" to roll out of the circle after knocking a marble out of the circle otherwise you had to put the marble back in the circle. You shot until you missed. There were two primary shooting techniques. One involved holding the "shooter" between your index finger and your thumb and throwing the marble with some force at the intended target. There was another version not often seen in my generation as I think it was used in generations before us. It involved curling the index finger into a semi-circle then lodging the marble in the arc of the semi-circle. Placing your index finger, knuckle first on the ground you used your thumb like a pinball flipper and shot the "shooter" at a target. I tried this technique but was not nearly as successful with it as the thrown technique.

Pots involved digging a depression in the soft earth with the heel of your shoe going round and round to create an even depression two or three inches deep. Then you rolled marbles along the ground into the "pot." Kind of like a reverse horseshoes, or curling. I'm not sure of what winning was, but I think that you took turns rolling marbles. The first one to get all of his marbles into the pot won the pot. I'm not sure but I cannot for the life of me think of another winning rule that makes sense.

I was quite good at marbles. My Dad usually staked me to a fairly generous supply to begin the season and as I remember a year or two my previous seasons winning were sufficient to tide me over into the next season. I usually had a fairly big cloth bag of marbles. There were the normal glass marbles, cat's eyes, and occasionally the older clay versions. "Shooters" were also called Joners. There was a version of a "shooter" called a "steelie." A steelie was a ball bearing we would find by scavenging the scrap yard of the Munising Foundry located across Munising Ave. from Lincoln School. The foundry was owned by the Hanson family and they lived in a home that fronted Superior St. but ran along an alley that bordered the western property of Lincoln. I do not recall Mrs. Hanson, except to say that I think we thought she was mean. I think she was just old.

Regardless, many a time was had going to school in the morning, on the way to and from lunch, and after school playing marbles. The Benzing family lived on the corner of Munising Ave and Hickory St. They had a garage behind their home with a gravel driveway. It was that gravel driveway that seemed to shed snow first. Often there was a cold breeze. We are talking weather here in the 30's and 40's. In the morning on the way to school it would be 20's. We are talking about shedding jackets and gloves to be able to get into the proper position to shoot marbles. We are talking about hand numbing, bone chilling cold tolerated because it was spring. There was a cold that blew up the back of your shirt or down the neck of your tee shirt as you hunched over to shoot a winner.

When you were done shooting marbles, hustling to get to school on time the jacket and gloves would warm to your exertion so that by the time you got to school you had broken out in a mild sweat. Those were glorious days. The promise of spring brought forth marbles. The marbles brought forth the feeling that winter was losing its grip. We proved how tough we were by still playing marbles during the occasional spring snow storm. We proved how tough we were by coming home after school with our jacket slung over our arm, our hands dirty from the effort of honest toil, and a marble bag heavy with booty. A hot cup of hot chocolate that warmed the tummy, the warmth of the house, and mother cooking dinner proved that we were men among men and that things were all right in the world.