Summary

Game name (and type): 'Walking' (processional game)

Handwritten description of the processional game 'Walking' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Jeanette McDonald, a student at Double View Government Primary School, on 24 March 1955. A processional game is classified as a game in which players walk, run, skip or move in an orderly line from one place to another. McDonald describes 'Walking' as an alternative to games such as 'Scarecrow', 'Hoppy' and 'Dodge'. She states that ten to twenty players are required. Players form two rows about eight feet apart. Children take turns to walk in a unique way between the two rows. McDonald suggests skipping, hopping, running and walking with legs crossed as possible options. She writes that players must not repeat a mode of walking exhibited by previous players.

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 pencil on lined paper. Features borders ruled in red pencil; text printed on one side only.

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