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Things we do for fun: Recreational Folklife in Kentucky by Bob Gates, The Kentucky Folklife Program
Four men stand, squat, and kneel on a dirt marble yard, lit by florescent lights hanging from overhead cables, somewhere in Monroe County, Kentucky. They and a small audience focus their attention on the relative positions of the marbles. As one member of a team bends over to prepare for his shot he stretches out his left hand like a large spider to give himself a good "span." One of the members of the opposing team jokes to the group that he should be careful that he doesn't "fudge it" this time. In spite of the seemingly relaxed atmosphere, the first player concentrates his energy and makes a difficult shot that arches over one marble, flies 20 feet through the air, and lands directly on the marble sitting near the second hole.
To outsiders of this tradition, that was an amazing shot, but the players
barely seem to notice it.
Having hit his opponent's marble, the first player picks up his own marble
and at close range pops the offending marble again (croquet-style), sending
it flying outside the court. He then turns and smartly "pitches"
his marble (like a putt in golf) into the hole, a target barely the size
of the marble. Having "made the hole" he gets another turn to
move toward the next hole. But first he talks with his teammate about the
relative merits of moving on, staying in the hole to keep his opponents
from making their hole, or sticking around in the general area of the hole
to protect his partner from the inevitable retribution. Together they decide
that at this point in the game he should "lie" in the hole and
wait. The crowd goes crazy. Actually, they just continue to talk about their
grandchildren and whether or not they will be able to get the tobacco in
before the predicted rain.
What is going on here? Why are these men spending their Monday night at a 30 x 60 foot marble yard when many others throughout Kentucky are safely at home in front of their TV sets watching Monday Night Football? The men are playing Rolley Hole — a long-time tradition in Monroe County. At one time the game was played throughout the state, but Monroe County seems to be the only place in Kentucky where the game still generates passion. Across the state line in Scott County, Tennessee, the people are just as crazy about the game. There is a great rivalry between the two states; in fact, the annual National Rolley Hole Tournament is held in nearby Standing Stone State Park.
The games have received national attention through ESPN broadcasts and
even a mention in Charles Schulz's Peanuts cartoon.
Rolley Hole, like many of the things we do for fun, is a traditional activity
that members of a folk group do together. As traditional participants, they
share a common knowledge of the history of the activity, rules, accepted
behavior, and expected outcomes. Being a participant does not automatically
make you a part of the group. For instance, a Mexican American from Los
Angeles watched an ESPN report on Rolly Hole and became so interested in
the sport that he moved from his home in Los Angeles to Tompkinsville, Ky.
His interest and his ability play did not immediately make him a member
of this group. Even though he played in several tournaments and hung out
at all the local marble yards it took him months to be accepted by local
players. Part of his problem dealt with obvious differences between him
and the other players such as ethnicity, his Mexican American speech patterns,
and even the way he launched his marbles (using his index finger rather
than his thumb). However, the most important barrier was his being an outsider
to the culture. He didn't grow up in the community, didn't go to school
with any of the other players, and didn't know the stories and history of
the game that were passed on from father to son, player to player. Eventually
he was accepted becoming what folklorists call an insider to the tradition.
He became a member of that folk group.
Membership sometimes doesn't come easily. Though it is not always apparent to us that we are members of folk recreational groups; we all belong to multiple folk groups. Our family is one folk group; our occupation may be another. We may belong to an ethnic group or be a descendant of recent immigrants or come from a particular region or neighborhood where certain traditions exist. When we take part in recreational activities, we often don't realize that our love of hunting and fishing comes from our grandfather and that people in our community share the special techniques we use. Our ways of growing a garden and preserving crops may come from our region or the farming traditions hidden in our ancestors' past. Our desire to play checkers or cards each weekend may be an expression of a neighborhood tradition like that of James Holoman and his friends, who have been playing poker checkers in North Lexington for over 30 years.
A listing of folk recreational activities in Kentucky can include such diverse activities as singing in a church choir, playing bingo at the local Knights of Columbus hall, listening to Bluegrass music at a local festival, telling jokes and stories on the front porch, attending Grateful Dead concerts, hanging out with other skateboarders, gathering friends to compete in a demolition derby or tractor pull, planning a Derby party, and, yes, even taking part in the annual homage to UK basketball. To the extent that we take part in these activities as a member of a group which shares some values, knowledge, and love of the sport, we are folk artists who are enjoying the art of recreation.
Many of our folk group activities share elements that we see in the above example of Rolley Hole. We do these as members of folk groups representing age groups, regions, families, occupations, ethnic groups, churches, and so on. Folklorists study these groups in order to find shared common traditions. The groups' folklore is a window into the things that are important in their everyday lives. By identifying these groups and their folk activities, we can come to understand the importance that art plays in their lives. People who participate in these activities can tell us a lot about the history and culture of their communities.
Rules of the game
Whenever a group comes together to have fun it isn't long before the members
are debating and arguing over the rules of the game. I fondly remember the
intricate rules my brothers and I devised for our game of fast pitch whiffle
ball-home run derby. Over the years the rules encompassed such things as
which type of plastic ball we could use (hard plastic, no holes); what constituted
hits (line drives past the pitcher were singles, halfway up the hill to
our house was a double, and off the side of the house was a home run); the
use of ghost runners; and the use of two outs instead of three to speed
up the game. We had many more rules, and I being the older brother was often
accused of trying to insert new ones that were seen to benefit me when the
need arose. We played that game long into our adulthood often to the bewilderment
of our nieces and nephews who couldn't grasp our crazy rules and our preference
for this three-man game over a "real" baseball game using more
people and real runners. I think our rules and the need to revise them over
the years was part of the glue that made the game ours, just as our kids
today make their own rules for old games in order to adapt to new times
and places.
Whatever the activities, from playing marbles to taking part in a weekly quilting bee, there are unwritten rules or codes of behavior that the participants have learned informally while watching and interacting. General Rolley Hole marble rules, such as how much a person can span (move the marble with his outstretched hand to shoot the next shot) before you are "fudging" (cheating), are pretty well agreed upon throughout the region. Rolley Hole marble players understand the ins and outs of the game as it is played in their area, but are also aware that some rules change depending on where you are playing. Players at the "Superdome" in downtown Tompkinsville, have been known to tolerate a little drinking of spirits and loud talk on occasions, while some marble yards out in the county have a strict ban on that kind of disruptive behavior. The players understand these rules and the underlying philosophies and choose their playing sites accordingly. Likewise, senior citizens who work on quilts together share rules for choosing designs and deciding on how close the stitches should be that reflect a group aesthetic for the art or their craft. You can also observe that the topics of discussions (whether about their grandchildren's achievements in school or some heavy-duty gossip about other residents of the hometown) are governed by group rules that are understood and unspoken. Ignoring or consistently breaking the rules can result in expulcion.
A member of a group of guitar players who meet weekly at a music store in McCreary County to pick told me of a visitor from another Kentucky county who made the mistake of ignoring two very important "common sense" rules of guitar jamming. First, he "hogged it" (played more than one song before letting someone else play their song), and then he "showed off" by playing songs unfamiliar and seemingly more difficult than the other players knew or could play. He seemed to be snubbing the local preference for thumb or finger picking in favor of the playing of melodies of recent hit records. The final blow was his rendition of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," which earned him stares from players and visitors and the distinction of not being asked to return the following week. Not all breaches of local etiquette are so drastic. Groups tend to find a happy medium between individual artistic expression and local traditional artistic forms. For the most part, our love of the activity and the fellowship we gain from playing keep most of these recreational groups together. Now this gets us back to an earlier question posed about marble players.
Why do they and we spend so much of our time involved in folk recreation in the first place? Why do we do it?
We might do it for the companionship, our need to socialize. We get many benefits such as the feeling of staying young as we play the same game of marbles that we did in grade school. It might also fulfill our need to compete and win, but more often we play just for the joy and satisfaction of mastering new skills and trying to perfect old techniques. Doing it with others helps us gain a sense of identity with our communities and helps us build trust in others. The activities help us grow and be involved within a group structure and help us take time out from our everyday activities, a special time when we can forget our work or our worries and get out there and play. However, the best way to find out why someone does it is to ask. Back at the marble yard, when the game I was watching finally ended with two younger men beating two representatives of the older generation of Rolley Hole players, I asked everybody involved in the three- hour game why they did it. They all gave me the same answer: "It's fun, man. It's just fun."
Bob Gates directs the Kentucky Folklife Program, an inter-agency program of the Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky Arts Council located at the Kentucky Historical Society. Both agencies are members of the Education, Arts and Humanities Cabinet.
