Summary

Game name (and type): 'Crumbs and Crusts' (chasing game)
Alternative types: running games, team games

Handwritten description of the chasing game 'Crumbs and Crusts' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Robert Oxwell, a student at Double View Government Primary School, on 24 March 1955. To play 'Crumbs and Crusts', Oxwell writes that at least four players are required. Two captains are selected, establishing teams named either Crumbs or Crusts. One player is elected the 'Judge' and is responsible for determining the physical boundaries of the game. A second player is chosen as the 'Caller', whose role it is to call out the name of the team who must run away from the opposition. Oxwell explains that the two teams line up back to back about two feet apart. The 'Caller' announces the name of one team, who run towards the boundaries to avoid capture by the opponents chasing them.

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 printed on one side only.

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