Moore still finds fun in marble tournaments

By GINA KINSLOW
Glasgow Daily Times

TOMPKINSVILLE September 22, 2008 11:25 am

— Paul Moore loves to play marbles.
“I’ve played marbles all of my life,” he said.
Moore was one of several who took part in a game or two of Tennessee Square Marbles during last month’s Etoile Fair.
He has been playing Tennessee Square Marbles for 10 to 12 years. His primary game is Rolley Hole Marbles, which is the type of marble game most commonly played in Tompkinsville.
Moore explained the difference.
“Rolley Hole is played on dirt,” he said. “You’ve got three holes and you make three rounds. These here you play on a carpet and with big marbles too. It makes a lot of difference.”
Moore said he doesn’t favor one type of marble game over another.
“I like them both – just a game or two,” he said, adding he’s not good at either one.
Moore, like most marble shooters, makes his own marbles out of flint. He uses an emery rock and a rubber wheel to get the shape of the marble and to make it smooth. It takes about 10 minutes to make a flint marble, he said.
He gets his flint in northern Tennessee.
“I go to Pall Mall, Tenn., over there to Sgt. York’s farm,” he said. “We go there and get the rock.”
Moore explained that flint found in southcentral Kentucky is not good for making marbles.
“This around here won’t hold up. It will bust just like glass,” he said.
When Moore is not shooting marbles, he’s fishing.
He says he’s a better fisherman than a marble shooter.
The largest fish he ever caught was a 61-pound catfish.
Instead of mounting the large fish on his wall, he and his family ate it.
Moore goes fishing just about every day. There are two fishing holes that rank among his favorite places.
“I like Skaggs and Beaver creeks,” he said. “One of them is just about as good as another.”
Moore tries to enter all the marble competitions at area county fairs, but he doesn’t enter any fishing tournaments.
“We just fish for the fun of it,” he said.

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