In a previous post, we wrote a short announcement about attending a rolley hole tournament. We recently learned about a long-standing tournament in Tennessee and a permanent rolley hole yard which honors a marble maker named Bud Garrett
Robert “Bud” Garrett was an African-American musician, marble maker and supporter of a marbles game called “rolley hole.” He was born in the Clay County community of Free Hill, Tennessee. People in the Free Hill community and the surrounding areas have been playing rolley hole since before the Civil War.
If you are not familiar with rolley hole, it is a marble game in which teams of two players each face off against one another. The game is played on a “yard” that is 40 feet by 20 feet and has three marble-size holes positioned equal distances apart. The objective is to shoot all of your marbles into the prepared holes while your opponent’s goal is to knock your marbles out of range.
The game is played with flint marbles; glass marbles are too delicate and would shatter during play.
Garrett is credited for creating a “marble machine” in the late 1940s to make flint marbles.. The machine was powered by an electric motor and could create perfectly round marbles in a matter of minutes. They were very durable, and every marble he made came with a lifetime guarantee. If one of Garrett’s marbles shattered, Garrett would send a replacement.
In addition to being important in the marble world, Bud became famous for his music.
Ironically, Bud Garrett died while playing marbles. Read more about about him at https://tslablog.blogspot.com/2017/02/music-and-marbles-life-of-bud-garrett.html
