I saw this image of the 'tops' a few days ago and I was reminded of school days. Elementary school days; that was long ago. At our school, Pacific Elementary in Manhattan Beach, there were seasons for our playground fun. There was a time for marbles and a time for yo-yo's. Time for tetherball and time for dodgeball. And then time for tops. Tops and and marbles were the most competitive and personal of games. Marbles were easily lost to a deadly accurate shooter. And tops were easily destroyed in a game where the sharpened spike at the end of the top hit your spinning top. You would take turns with one spinning first and then the other attempting to 'Spike' the spinning top by spinning it directly on top of the hapless top, breaking it in two. I remember being devastated when my brand new top was destroyed by the school bully.
Everything I know about violence in human nature I learned in kindergarten...and elementary school. Well, maybe not all. Some of it I am still learning.
I still have a coffee can full of my marbles. My treasured marbles. ;) Once in awhile when the grandkids are here, I let them get them out but kids don't play with them anymore.
ReplyDeleteI lost all of my marbles (no kidding) and it makes me wonder; where did they go? Consider all of the marbles lost by millions of children over the years; they should be underfoot everywhere!
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