Does anyone still play marbles?
At one Tucson toy store they do.
On Fridays at 4 p.m., Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle's goes old school, hosting marbles competitions for the young and young at heart.
For those unfamiliar with the game, the rules are simple. Each player starts with an equal number of marbles, which are placed inside a circle on the ground. The players also use a shooter — a marble roughly twice the size of the others —that they take turns firing at their opponents' marbles trying to knock them out of the circle.
Some competitors bring their own marbles to Mrs. Tiggy-Winkles, while others borrow marbles from the store. The circle is marked with string.
All the games take place in the aisles, between toy displays. This made toy shopping a challenge last Friday for those desperately seeking a last-minute Christmas present.
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There were about 10 people playing marbles on Friday. Store representatives say there have been as many as 20 players on past Fridays.
Bill Rubasch sat on the carpet to the right of the counter, next to his son Billy and his grandson Daniel. The three took turns firing their shooter marble into the circle. Eventually, Billy emerged victorious.
"It was only my second time playing marbles," Daniel says.
"No excuses," Rubasch jokes.
Rubasch says he grew up playing marbles, but in his day they played in the dirt. And there were more rules.
"You couldn't fudge it," he says. "You had to shoot the marble with your thumb. You couldn't just toss it in."
The rules at Mrs. Tiggy-Winkles are pretty lax. Lots of the players "fudge it."
Veteran "Tiggy" Kyle Lehew, 22, who is studying media arts at the University of Arizona, says the store usually doesn't hold special events during the busy Christmas season, but the marbles competitions are new and have been popular, and they wanted to keep the momentum going.
That day, Lehew was playing marbles against fourth-grader Christopher Rosenberg. Lehew tried to explain to Rosenberg that he needs to keep his hands outside the circle when he shoots.
"It's a rule Christopher does not grasp," he chides.
Jamie Madden, 18, is a student at Pima Community College, who started working at the store in September, played a game against her friend Kali Lucey. Madden says she likes marbles because "it's classic."
"My dad told me that he used to play," she says.
Some things never go out of style.
If you go
• What: Marbles competitions.
• Where: Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle's, 4811 E. Grant Road.
• When: 4 p.m. Fridays.
• How much: Free.
