Summary

Game names (and types): 'Poor Pussy', 'Blindman's Bluff' (guessing games), Marbles (marbles), 'Rounders', 'French Cricket', 'Cricket' (ball games), 'Round the Post', 'Sheep Sheep Come Home' (chasing games), 'Hide and Seek' (hiding game), Hopscotch (hopscotch), 'The Farmers in the Dell', 'Oranges and Lemons' (language play), 'Tops', 'Fox and Hounds', 'Police and Robbers', 'Postmans Knock', 'O'Grady Says', 'Pennies', 'Half Pennies' (unknown types)
Alternative types: play with props/equipment, jumping games, running games, rhymes, blindfold games, bat and ball games

Handwritten list of games played by children at Cherry Gardens School between 1920 and 1935 compiled for Dr Dorothy Howard by Jeanette Harvey on 3rd March 1955. In addition to the list, Harvey discusses 'Poor Pussy', a game popular with girls and young boys at Andrews School in Hill River Valley north of Adelaide between 1920-1930. To play 'Poor Pussy', children formed a circle around a blindfolded player. The blindfolded child points to individuals in the circle, who chanted a rhyme in response, before trying to guess their identity. Harvey notes that 'Poor Pussy' was also played by students at Cherry Gardens School, stating that the game came from Blackwood.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's games 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

Handwritten list in blue ink on paper. Comprises two sheets of paper. Features printed text along upper portion of pages.

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