We could play marbles all we wanted, we kept them in cloth bags, made by our mothers. The over-riding rule was that NO SIGN of a marble should be seen or heard of during class, or the teacher would take them(temporarily.)
There was a whole culture around marbles.There was one game that both boys and girls played, and another that only boys played. Goodness knows why, it was no more difficult or macho!It wasn't that the boys wouldn't let the girls play, but that we never played it.