Steph

Awesome. Thanks for the show!

Wow, does Willie work at a dairy or what?

Neat!

? I do not believe that David is a troll. He has an interesting perspective. He seems to be endeavoring to get people to think. I perceive his overall goal to be greater cohesion, greater tolerance, and generally improved spirits. uh, but maybe I misunderstood ;-)

fascinating!

WOW !!!

I think we're in the "nice tri-lite" area here. There are some names, aquamilk, bluemilk, greenmilk, etc. which are being seen bandied about a little these days. I'm cautious with those. They seem to have been made for personal use of one or a few collectors. We have enough problems when we try to get a rigid definition for something like a buttermilk. I don't know how fun or constructive it would be to worry about the other names. And these extra Milk names were made up by people who like to have fun and enjoy their pretty marbles. So not for arguing about. So . . . I like "nice tri-lite" ! BUT in case you're curious as to what someone might call an aquamilk - here's one which recently sold on ebay. Chuck sent me the link so I know that one's "right". Here are a couple of the pix. (click to enlarge) (I'm curious about the price it went for - that seems HIGH! - especially when looking at the moons I think I see.) Note the size, 21/32". These various "milk" marbles tend to be a little oversize. One reason the name "milk" sorta makes sense for many of them is that they are often found together with the buttermilks. For example, they're often seen together in Worcester Salt bags. And also often found together in collections in the wild.

What Scott (I Love Marbles) said. Vacor makes marbles for play. Real and colorful and eye catching for kids to enjoy. I don't think they're thinking about the Peltier collectibles market. :-)

When I wrote Marble Dynasties in the title I meant to also mention families with more than one champion. But I didn't have my material anywhere near organized enough for that so I dropped that theme. But here's a little bit along those lines. Debra Stanley-Lapic (1973) and Whitney Lapic (2009) of course are on the list as the first parent-child pair of national champs, but Debra also has two nieces who went all the way to the top - Brenda Schwartz in 1980 and Darlene Schwartz in '82. The Stamm family had three champs: Danny in 1979, Lisa in 1982 and Nicole in 1984. Looking through the list of winners, I see many surnames which appear twice. Richard Ryabik in 1943 and his brother Raymond in 1946 when the tournaments resumed after the war. In this century there have been the Miller family, the Ricci family and the Nees family. Having names such as Ryabik to work with makes googling easy. :-) Looking for Ryabik led me to this article, History center puts out a call for mibsters. Seen it before. Worth looking at it again. :-) That article has an emphasis on winners from Allegheny County in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has a lot of winners. Colorado has made a nice showing recently though. That's where the Nees family is from. I think there might be more families with multiple winners who were cousins or such. And I can't even begin to touch the families who dominated locally and sent members to nationals year after year even if they didn't win the overall title.

Have a great one Dave! May many Akros roll your way!

It's that time again! The National Marbles Tournament is almost here. This article in the Beckley, WV Register-Herald is way cool. Straight Shooters I wanted to say more about it but I can't organize my thoughts very well right now. It's just cool. It mentions Debra and Whitney - shows that adorable baby photo where Whitney is already trying to shoot marbles at 9 months of age - and already has better form than I ever will! LOL And it talks about George Springer of Beckley, including a story of how he helped Debra on her quest for the national title. I've read so many articles written by him, from back in the 50's and thereabouts. He was a sportswriter. At times he called himself the marbles editor. Sixty years ago Beckley, WV showed how community support built marble champs. I don't remember right at this moment how many national champions their area had but it was at least a few. AND Debra shows how community support builds marble champs now. Since her win in '73 she has coached 15 more national champions starting when she was still a teenager. In a sad development, her town has lost its 80-year sponsor due to the tough economy, but I'm sure she's gonna get her local kids to nationals. This article is a window into the past, present and possibly the future of marble playing. So enjoy!

sharp

Big orange one might be a Vacor sunset.

What?! you were in Oklahoma and you didn't come see me? . . . oh wait, I don't live in Oklahoma. Is that an agate at the bottom?

Hi Ruth. I haven't seen Gary around in awhile. I'm GUESSING that he wouldn't need to buff away any glass first. That could be naive of me. But it seems as if might be kinda like wetting down a dull rock to see what it could look like polished.

we're jealous because we can't walk to our workshop and whip ourselves up a batch of marbles.

Still don't get it. The $88.98 bid at 18:15:30 caused the $89.98 bid to be the high bid as of 18:15:30. So at 18:15:36, the instructions would have said "enter US $90.98 or more" My best guess is that the person with the $48.50 bid had started to enter it before 18:15:30. Then since their bid met the requirement for when their page was loaded, it went through. Didn't affect the bids, but was registered.

Okay, I'm having trouble with that one myself.

If that's Jabo, then it's a remarkable one. Heck, it's a remarkable one, no matter whose it is.

There was one in 2006.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

Hey there Howard. Actually been thinking about you. ( : Will let others comment on the value of the marbles. Just wanted to say hi. ( :

Seems like these mibs are the best of both worlds. Got the great ox, plus a distinctive color to set them apart from vintage. Just what the doctor ordered. At least, I'm not familiar with akro oxes having chartreuse.

David has spoken of dug Masters. At least I thought he did. Ain't sayin' which David, in case I'm wrong. :-) I don't think there have been Alox digs. Mike asked about the possibility one time, and I think there was an impediment. Don't know if there was a building over the site or not. The thing I kinda remember is something along the lines of the site being in a rough part of town.