Wednesday, July 11, 2007

I’m glad I’ve got my Marbles.

Aside

My Greek marbles that is – not to be confused with the sculptures the earl of Elgin removed from Athens to Britain in 1806. He was said to have rescued the sculptures from further risk. When the Parthenon was being converted into a church in the 5th century AD the whole of the middle section of the east pediment was removed causing destruction and many of the statues were deliberately defaced. Years back an Athenian shop-keeper demanded of me, that we British should return the marbles and I think he had a point.

My marbles were legitimately bought over the years and are treasured mementoes of a much loved Greece

11 comments:

Dr Maroon said...

Ah Pat you take me back.
Marbles. You don't see them now because they're dangerous. Kids swallow them, slide on them or put them in catapults to lethal effect.
I was very proud of my big bag of them.
As well as the ordinary worker marbles, there were those captured in combat and the favourite "specials".
Eg, green skellies, glessies, wallies, plonkers, on and on. I'm not that old.

Pat said...

Hi Doc! We called the glass ones 'popallies'. Dunno why! There goes my attempt to raise the intellectual level of this blog a notch:)

Sam, Problem-Child-Bride said...

Lovely collection, Pat. I'm only surprised any of it made it back in one piece. From the window seat I usually get on the plane I can often see exactly how packages marked FRAGILE are handled. You might as well write STOMP ME on the box.

Pat said...

Sam: more to come on Friday. I would only do one piece at a time and usually carried it. I went to Greece many times and part of me is still there.

Unknown said...

Mum, you can't have many marbles left, not after all the plays you've made!

*should I run off now?*

Pat said...

John: I have enough to cope with you young man!

OldHorsetailSnake said...

So the Greeks have lost their marbles? It figures; so have the Muslims.

Pat said...

Yes Hoss: but where are all these marbles ending up - that's what I'd like to know.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

I once saw a beautiful collection made of semi-precious stones...a very wealthy Jamaican-Jew owns them, and there was a board game too. But he didn't let anyone play :-D

Pat said...

GG: I have mixed feelings about collections. I once stared collecting little jugs and then suddenly everybody was giving me little jugs so I stopped. These are really mementoes of a place I love - in various forms, and they are scattered all over the house. I had a job finding them and have probably missed some.

Anonymous said...

I wonder what the Greek shop-keeper would have said had you retorted: 'Actually, they're here in my bag - I trust you will pass them on to the authorities?'

Then again, the likelihood...