Summary

Game names (and types): 'A little green snake...', 'Eeny weeny meeny weeny...', 'Engine, Engine, No 9...', 'Father Xmas has white whiskers...', 'Bread, butter sugar tea...', 'There's a [blank] on hillside...', 'If my mother punched your mother...', 'Dip red white blue...', 'Boy scout...', 'One in middle', 'All in Circle', 'Silence in court', 'Little sausages frying in a pan...', 'Round and round the butter dish...' (counting-out rhymes), 'Salt, mustard, kind, pepper.', 'Lady bird, Lady bird...', 'Shirley Temple in a star...', Grace, Grace dressed in lace...', Cinderella dressed in yellow...', 'Blue bell, cockle shells...', 'Teddy bear, Teddy bear...', 'Marble, Marble set the table...', 'Hello Mr Fat-belly...', 'Two little dicky birds...', 'Jelly on the plate...', 'Soldiers at the door...', 'Apple jelly raspberry tart...', 'Charlie Chaplin sat on a pin...', 'Teddy bear, Teddy bear...' (skipping rhymes), 'Jacks', 'Up and Down', 'Scatts', 'Enemies', 'Friends', 'Onions', 'Onions, Scatts', 'Jack Be Nimble', 'My Little Pussy Cat', 'Sweep the Floor', 'Horses Stable', 'Granny's Teeth' (knucklebones, jacks use), 'Territories' (elimination game), 'Geography Hoppy' (hopscotch), 'Tractor or Kelly', 'Triangle' (marbles), 'Hip', 'Kingy', 'Brandy' (ball games)
Alternative types: language play, play with props/equipment, jumping game

Typed game descriptions compiled by an unidentified teacher from Carlisle Government School addressed to Dr Dorothy Howard on 28 March 1955. An accompanying note states that the games described are the favourites of students averaging 11 years of age. Numerous counting-out and skipping rhymes have been transcribed. Other descriptions have been provided by identified children. For example, Doreen Lund lists several knucklebones variants and the general rules. Jack Setlak describes the marbles games 'Tractor or Kelly' and 'Triangle', while Barry Trembath provides descriptions of the ball games 'Hip', 'Kingy' and 'Brandy'. Many game descriptions include diagrams and some information about the players. A glossary of relevant terminology used in marbles games has also have included.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's game written to children's Folklorist Dorothy Howard between 1954 and 1955. Dr Howard came to Australia in 1954-55 as an American Fulbright scholar to study Australian children's folklore. She travelled across Australia for 10 months collecting children's playground rhymes, games, play artefacts, etc. This letter, together with the other original fieldwork collected by Dr Howard during this period, is preserved in the Dorothy Howard Collection manuscript files, part of the Australian Children's Folklore Collection (ACFC), Archive Series 3. The ACFC is an extensive collection documenting children's folklore and related research.

Physical Description

Typed game descriptions in black ink on paper. Accompanied by a handwritten list and note in blue ink on separate sheets of lined paper. Partial envelope featuring handwritten address and postage imprints on front and typed sender's address on reverse.

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