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Columnist Dean Karau recalls the day Kewanee lost its marbles over marbles Star Courier Marble games were played by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans in ancient times, and Aztecs and Native Americans in more recent times. The marbles were made of, well, marble, as well as of clay, stone, nuts, and flint. The marbles we know got their start in Germany in the mid-1800s and made their way to America soon after that. But those marbles were still made by hand and were not commonly available. In the late 1880s, an American inventor was issued a patent for an “Apparatus for Rounding Plastic Clay Slugs,” and few years later another one for a “Machine for Manufacturing Marbles.” Suddenly, the price of marbles was within reach of everyday folks – and children. They were so common that they were called “commies.” ....