I've Still Got All My Marbles and other thoughts

When I was a kid I had a bunch of marbles, almost all cat's eyes, that I got from who knows where. Some were the larger size, some the smaller. The larger ones were about the diameter of a quarter and the smaller ones maybe a little larger than a dime. There are many different types of marbles: usually glass or clay, and they come in many different colors and color patterns, blues, and Chinas, German swirls, and aggies, bumblebees, sparklers, and crystals. On Ebay, antique (old) marbles can sell for several dollars apiece. Some older ones are hand made. They fetch the higher prices. A marble sold for $40,000 a few years ago. Marbles have been excavated from ancient Pakistani, Chaldean, and Mesopotamian sites and were mentioned in Ovid's poetry. Now, most are machine made. I've got a bunch around here somewhere, but I'm not sure just exactly where. One could say I have lost my marbles; but I've still got all my marbles, I just don't know where they are. One time back in fifth grade in Salt Lake City I played "keepsies" with a neighborhood kid I sort of knew, Mark Martin. He was from a Mormon family a couple of blocks away. There were lots of Mormons in Salt Lake City. We drew a circle in the dirt maybe 3 or 4 feet around and took turns shooting at each other's marbles in the ring. If you knocked the other's marbles out of the ring, you got to keep them. I was a better shooter than he was. You'd hold the marble against your thumb which is lodged between the ring finger and the middle finger and then flick the marble aiming at a cat's eye or aggie. The aggies were the cool marbles. I won all his marbles. Maybe 30 of them. He cried and walked home. I felt so bad that I went over later and gave him back his marbles. My family lived in Salt Lake City less than a year and I never kept in touch with that kid. I wonder if he remembers this.........* * * * * * * * * President Obama turned 54 this week. Last year he said he was 53. Notice how his story keeps changing..........* * * * * * * Used to be politicians tried to sound smarter than the other candidates..............* * * * * * * Donald Trump now promises to replace Obamacare with "something terrific." Well, now, there you go. Finally, a detailed plan. * * * * * * * * Finally, I read that a blanket ban on gay boy scout leaders was lifted. Personally, I've always thought gay boy scout leaders should be able to have blankets just like everyone else.