Old and new, my marble collection weighs close to fifty pounds and fills a five-gallon pickle jar with overflow into a cookie tin. Swirlies and aggies, cat's-eyes, clearies...no knuckling down for this Crow and lover of shiny objects!
As a child, I drove my mother mad as I spun a line of marbles 'round and 'round in the lid of a metal fruitcake tin, utterly enthralled by the optical delights of spiralling lines. My favorites were candy-striped, red, green or blue on white, and one tiny cobalt-blue cleary who hung out in my imagination with three yellow and one white solids of the same size. The group always formed the last of the parade, like the segments of a rattlesnake's tail. Equal to them was a coveted single white cat's-eye I'd been forced to trade heavily to obtain.
Well, if I am pressed, I suppose I must admit that my original collection went the way of so many childhood treasures when I moved away from home. However, even today I cannot resist picking up a marble if I find one, hoping that sheer numbers will make up for those lost forever with my youth.
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