June bug

            A daughter-in-law found a June bug which is not unusual since it is June.

              

               The June bug reminded me of a time long, long ago in a world that seems far, far away. Actually the time would have been over a half century ago when this retired person was just a kid (for anyone that is mathematically challenged, that would be in the 1950s).  I would say that we had less money and less of everything back then but I had no idea that we were considered poor.

               The June bug reminded me of the fact that we did not have many toys.  In fact, the June bug occasionally was one of our play things. Much of our play was imaginary. The boys usually had some type of cap gun but did not have caps to pop, so we went bang a lot.

               Skate boards did exist in those days, although they were much different from today’s version. One big problem in our neighborhood (on Pine Street), there was no sidewalks and the street was gravel.  The skateboards consisted of a couple 2X4 boards and, an old clamp on skate.  The clamp on skate would be nailed or screwed to the bottom of a 2X4. The other 2X4 was nailed to the front of the first 2X4 and some type handle (see photo). I never had a skate boardL.

               We played a lot of cowboys and Indians.  I seem to remember that everyone wanted to be name Tex or Joe when we played cowboys.  I guess those were two popular cowboy names.

               We played marbles as kids and some of us were actually good at playing. The game started with a circle being drawn on the ground (bare ground no grass). Each player would place their marbles inside the circle. Each player took a turn shooting his marble into the ring trying to knock a marble out of the ring.

I remember some of the phrases or words that one needed to know to be able to play. I must say I am not remembering everything about the game. “Funnies, Keeps, Tall, Two or your Tall, Innies, Pinks, Lobby, Steelie ”.

o   Funnies, meant the game was for fun and you did not get to keep the other persons marbles.

o   Keeps, meant the game was for real and you kept what you knocked out of the ring.

o   Tall, was the marble the shooter uses to try and knock other marbles out of the ring. It was usually considered a favorite marble of the shooter.

o   Two or your tall, if you shot your Tall and it stayed inside the ring, if someone else knocked your tall out of the ring he would say, “two or your Tall”, meaning you had to give him two marbles in exchange for your Tall. 

o   Innies would be said if your shot knocked a marble out of the ring, but your tall stayed inside the ring. You also got another shot and shooting from inside the ring was usually easier than from outside.

o   Pinks, occasionally the marbles were put on pinks which was dirt squeezed together between your fingers into a very small pyramid shape and the marble placed on top. It was easier to knock a marble out of the ring when place on a pink.

o   Lobby, was an oversized marble and usually not allowed as a Tall.

o   Steelie, was a metal ball-bearing the same size as the marbles. It was heavier and was usually banned as a Tall.

Those of you that can correct me or provide more info on the game please do so, I would like to remember more of the rules.

        June bugs as toys, this sounds a little harsh but as I said we did not have a lot of toys. We would take a June bug and tie a thread on its leg. The thread was several feet long and we would hold the other end. The bug would try to fly away but the string would not let them get too far, usually they would fly in a circle around the kid as he held the string.

From the buggy mind of                        Don Ford   

  

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