A Simple Tale of a Bag of Marbles

I remember getting into one fight in my youth.  A classmate and I had a heated argument about who had the prettiest mother, which argument erupted into a full-blown, albiet short-lived, physical confrontation.

In the early '50's, kids who 'held the goods' had marbles.  Really.  Marbles.  And, it wasn't uncommon for a kid known to have many and/or valued marbles to be confronted on the way home by a few rough-necks who wanted to steal the marbles.

I have been thinking about that lately.  I have been thinking how Barack was hit up on the way home from school for his marbles.  Now, Barack was a very popular kid and represented the whole school in marble tournaments because he was considered to be a straight-shooter.  So, when confronted by the bullying thieves, three thugs with crew cuts, blue jeans, red-shirted sleeves rolled up, fists clenched... Barack's entire school stood behind him, cheering support. And, being the diplomat that he presented himself to be, he negotiated to keep his stash.

"Tell you what," said Barack, in an ever-so-calm silken voice, cool as his blue shirt. (I think it was blue..well, at least it started out blue, but maybe had gone through a wash with some red laundry since...)  "I present, here, the glass spheres..." as he carefully lay them out for counting. "And, oh! Here's a boulder..you'll like that!... all those cat-eyes... and here's a naked lady, and steeley in this pocket.." turning his pockets inside-out, presenting his prize.

The three bullies, one in tears, one as gaunt as his rigid thinking, and the third muffling rhetoric of continued domination,  grabbed up the marbles and took off running, complaining, calling names back at Barack while lusting over their haul, counting each marble and dropping it into a bag.

"Wow.  Negotiating is tough," said Barack as he rejoined his classmates. "But, see how well negotiation works? I know nobody's 100% happy. But, that's the art of the deal.  I do still have one cat-eye and a plan to get marbles back,"  he said, all proud, flashing a big smile.

No matter how complicated one might like to make the story, it really is a simple tale.

In case you were wondering, I won the little fight with my classmate.  I don't remember who suffered the most physically as we each walked away...but, I won because I really did have the most beautiful Mother.

"And, smart, too!  Hey!  Didja hear me??  SMART, too!"