The 33rd NE Marble Meet

[Pete]

Our friend Bert Cohen recently asked me to share details re: the upcoming 33rd NE Marble Meet coming up October 6 and 7 in Marlborough Massachusetts.

Younger collectors might not realize this, but we may owe the state of marble collecting today in large part to Bert. When I took on a project some time ago to document as many references to marbles in the press as I could, I couldn't help but notice an illuminating trend...

References to marbles in the early part of the century often reflected the prevalence of marbles in everyday life and play at the time. As we moved on to later decades, marble-mentions in pop culture declined a great deal. Eventually marbles were seldom mentioned except in phrases that became part of the vernacular - references to sports teams playing "for all the marbles," politicians "picking up their marbles and going home," and of course the ever-popular loosing of one's marbles. Other references I saw were "hail as big as marbles," speaking "with marbles in your mouth," even losing traction in an auto race on the bits of rubber tire debris found on turns came to be known as "slipping on the marbles." It seemed everyone was familiar enough with marbles in terms of these expressions making sense, but there was very little mention of marbles otherwise. Then articles began popping up about "weirdos" who collected marbles, and around then there is a sudden rise in marble-mentions in the media, with Bert being behind many of them. That is when I really came to understand why Bert is know as the "Marble Ambassador" - he has done perhaps more than anyone alive to put marbles and especially marble collecting before the masses. Bert's appearance on the scene seems to have served to trigger the growth in marble collecting that followed.

Which brings us to today. If you can make it, the NE show is organized by arguably the most passionate of collectors alive today, and I highly recommend it - I have always enjoyed attending. It's been said many times before, and I'll say it again - the Internet has been a good thing for this hobby, but it can never replace a live show. There's no substitute for seeing and holding and talking to flesh and blood people as passionate as you are like you can at a show.

So mark your calendars! Show dates are Saturday and Sunday October 6 & 7, but as many of you know, the best action is to be found in the room-hopping on Saturday nights (Friday night for early birds out to get the worm!), when most of the best deals are made.

For hotel accommodations only, contact The Marriott Courtyard at 75 Felton St. in Marlborough MA 01752 at 508-480-0015. Bert can be reached at 617-487-5808. See you there!

[ffrob10]

Iam going