![]() This referred to the rash of round, reddish marks that would appear on the skin – one of the first signs a person had the plague. It may have been during the great London Plague of 1665 that this nursery rhyme came into being.īack in those days, rhymes and songs were a way for common folk to tell stories that could be carried to succeeding generations and this song may be one of those. It evolved from the suffering in Europe caused by the Black Death.įrom the 1300s to the 16th century, there were several “plagues,” the word plague being used to describe several epidemic illnesses. ![]() It’s hard to believe, but this lively, innocent-sounding song has a terrible origin. One child stands in the center and the others form a ring, hold hands, skip around the child in the center, singing this song: This game is played in a circle and can accommodate many players. The game was considered genteel enough for noble ladies and gentlemen and it was said to be a favorite in the court of Henry VIII. Its origin may be too universal to ascribe to any one group of people, but we do know that it was especially popular in Tudor England, even among adults. The other players, who are not blindfolded, amuse themselves by calling out to the “blind man” and dodging away from him. In blind man’s buff, one player is blindfolded and then disoriented by being spun around several times. This is a game thought to have been played by many cultures over the centuries. Sophocles credited the invention of knucklebones to a mythical figure named Palamedes, who taught it to the Greek soldiers during the Trojan War. Objects used to play the game have been found in caves in Kiev, Ukraine, and depictions of the game being played have been found on ancient Greek pottery, some dating to 350 BC. Jacks are probably at least as old as humanity itself, when the jacks and ball would have been tiny sheep bones or rocks. There are lots of ways to play marbles – every schoolyard has its own variants and every club has its own games with their particular rules.įor most of its history jacks was called knucklebones. His system has remained essentially unchanged to this day. In 1915, mass production of glass marbles began, thanks to a machine invented by Akron’s M.F. He was soon followed by more Akron entrepreneurs doing much the same, making Akron the American marble capital of the late 1800s. Mass production began in 1884, when Sam Dyke, of Akron, Ohio, along with about 350 employees, started producing a million clay marbles a day. Obviously, marbles is an ancient and international game. The oldest marbles – round semi-precious stones buried with an Egyptian child – date to 3000 BC, and the British Museum has marbles from Crete which date to 2000 -1700 BC. In North America, engraved marbles have been found in ancient Native American earthen mounds. ![]() Marbles have been found in the ashes of Pompeii, Aztec ruins, in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs, in excavations of ancient Greece and Rome and painted on 17th century Dutch wall tiles. It gained popularity again in the 1970s, and continues to be played today, and although marbles are still considered collectible, the game hasn’t been able to reclaim its place as the premier children’s game and adult pastime that it once was. Marbles was really popular throughout the U.S., Britain and Europe in the early part of the 20th century, but World War II rationing, and the disruption of life in Europe during that terrible war, put the kibosh on marbles as a sport in many quarters. If you’re a regular mibster who’s knuckled down with a taw and taken a shot for an aggie duck, then you already know quite a bit about mibs, or what the uninitiated might call “marbles.” In the 13th century, another well-known gentleman, this time of French-English blood, seized power and captured the imagination of the English populace.Ī man powerful enough to imprison England’s King Henry III would be intimidating, thus it would behoove one to do what “Simon says,” or else. In Latin, the phrase would have been “Cicero dicit fac hoc” meaning “Cicero says to do this.”Īnd if Cicero said to do it, you’d be wise to do it.īut how did Cicero’s name get changed to Simon? He ranks right up there with Ben Franklin for quotable quotes: “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need” being just one of many famous quotes. ![]() He was a powerful and influential statesman whose word, at one time, was practically law.Ĭicero was one of the most respected wordsmiths of the ancient world – his wisdom was universally acclaimed. It was Marcus Tulius Cicero, a famous Roman lawyer, writer, orator and high-ranking consul. Most of us took our silly kids games for granted, but some of them have interesting histories.įor instance, Simon Says goes way back – to ancient Rome – and it was not Simon who started it.
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