Summary

Game name (and type): 'Hip with the Stick' (chasing game)
Alternative type: running games, games with found objects, games with sticks

Handwritten description of the chasing game 'Hip with the Stick' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Peter Downs, a student at Double View Government Primary School, on 25 March 1955. To play, Downs writes that one child allocates numbers to all players. Another child calls out a random number and the corresponding player is declared 'He-Man', the chaser. Downs notes that captured players can assist 'He-Man' to catch other children. He states that hiding from 'He-Man' or 'He-Man' hiding from the other players to catch them unawares is also encouraged.

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 description in black ink on lined paper. Features borders ruled in red pencil; text written on one side only.

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