Summary

Game name (and type): 'Hidey-Chasey' (hiding game)
Alternative types: chasing games, running games, team games

Handwritten description of the hiding game 'Hidey-Chasey' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Jeanette McQueen, a student at Double View Government Primary School, presumably on 25 March 1955. McQueen describes 'Hidey-Chasey' as a game requiring a minimum of four players and an area with plenty of hiding places. She writes that players are divided evenly into two teams. One team is elected 'he', closing their eyes and counting to four hundred; the other team hides. McQueen explains that if a member of the 'he' team sights a player hiding, they must try and catch them unawares. Alternatively, if a player notices one of the 'he' team approaching, they must run away to avoid capture.

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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