Playing Marbles at Sydenham School, 1948

 
Each day, the weather seems to tease us a little more with the approach of Spring. Donald James and Robert James, pictured here at Sydenham School in March 1948, are making the most of the warm weather with some marbles in the schoolyard. The game of marbles is as old as recorded history, with the more commonly-known glass versions gaining greater use than the less accurate clay forms in the nineteenth century. Other materials used to make the spheres have entered the marble lexicon, including “alleys” for alabaster or real marble, “aggies” for agate varieties, and “steelys,” which should be self-explanatory.