Summary

Game named (and typed): 'Countrys' [Countries] (ball game), 'Grandpa, Grandpa...' (rope skipping rhyme)
Alternative type: skipping games

Handwritten transcription of a rope skipping rhyme written for Dr Dorothy Howard by June Bartlett, a student at Collier Primary School, in 1955. The rhyme is: 'Grandpa, Grandpa sitting on a pin / How many inches did the pin go in.' Bartlett also describes the ball game 'Countrys' [sic]. To play, each player writes the name of a country in a square on the ring as indicated by her hand drawn, annotated diagram. She writes that one player proceeds to throw a ball into the ring and call out a country.

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 game descriptions in pencil on lined paper. Features annotated, hand drawn diagram at centre of page. Text printed on one side only.

More Information