Item HT 41181 Document - Unidentified Teacher, to Dorothy Howard, Game Description of 'Blue Bell Balker', 1955

Summary

Game name (and type): 'Blue Bell Balker' (game of imitation)

Typed description of the imitation game 'Blue Bell Balker' composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by an unidentified teacher at Collier Primary School, in 1955. To play, the author writes that two children face each other on either side of a line or crack. One child is elected the 'balker'. The 'balker' proceeds to skip irregularly from side to side with the other child mimicking their movements. If the 'balker' stops suddenly, so too must the opposing child or the players' roles are reversed.

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

Typed game description on card-sized paper. Text printed on one side only.