Annual marble show offers kids chance to try old-fashioned game

Event is in its sixth year

By RACHEL LANE, rlane@newsandsentinel.com
VIENNA — The sixth annual Marble Show for the West Virginia Marble Collectors Club allowed children to learn to play marbles.

“A lot of these kids have never played before,” said Cindy Yazvac, a member of the executive board of American Marbles.

She teaches students at a school in Clarksburg how to play marbles and coaches them to state and national competitions. In the last seven years, nine of her students have won scholarships.

“I have never seen a kid learn how to play marbles and not love it,” she said. “They’re competing, but it’s low key. It’s a good experience in sportsmanship.”

Trent Smith, 7, of Ravenswood, was visiting his grandmother this weekend when they noticed the sign for the marble show. His grandmother taught him who to play.

“I’ve never been in a real tournament before,” Smith said. “I won the first one. I lost the second one.”

He said he had fun playing against the older kids.

“You have to take the shooter ball and shot the other marbles,” Smith said. “I like to collect marbles because they could be collectors items and they’re fun to play with.”

Walter McKee, spokesperson for the Marble Collectors Club, said educating children is the primary reason for the club.

“There are still national marble tournaments,” McKee said. Kids are “interested in the different colored glasses. And it’s different than television.”

McKee said he played marbles in the 1950s, when he was about 10 years old.

“About 15 years ago, I got interested in marbles again,” McKee said. “I found out some of the marbles I had when I was a kid where valuable.”

Janelle Myers, 13, the 2006 West Virginia State champion, said she learned to play marbles in gym class.

“My older cousin played and he said he got to go to the beach and Charleston. I thought it sounded like fun,” Myers said.

She placed last in the state competition in 2005, but in 2006 she won.

“I qualified to go again this year” to the national competition at a beach in Georgia, she said.

Dave McMahan, of Delmont, Pa., said he has been a vendor at the marble show for several years.

“I usually make $2,000 to $3,000. This year, I didn’t make $1,000,” McMahan said.

He started collecting marbles and selling them about 40 years ago when he realized people would pay for them.

“People always asked me for marbles... It became my best collectible,” McMahan said. “Some of them are very unusual.”

McMahan said he blames the small crowd on the high gasoline prices and the holiday weekend. He said after traveling to Parkersburg, paying vendor fees and a hotel room, he did not earn any money.

“I might as well have stayed home,” McMahan said. “I think they’re charging the wrong person” and people attending the show should pay an entry fee.