Summary

Game name (and type): 'Two Ball' (ball game)
Alternative types: games with rhymes, ball-bouncing rhymes, language play

Handwritten description of the ball game 'Two Ball' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Elaine Russell, a student at Double View Government Primary School, presumably on 25 March 1955. Russell writes that 'Two Ball' is played against a wall usually by two or three players, noting that any number of children can play. She does not clarify if the ball is thrown or bounced; rather, she writes that it must move in time with the following rhyme: 'Each peach, pear, plum, out goes Tom Thumb, Tom Thumb won't do, in comes Betty Blue'. Russell notes that she plays 'Two Ball' every night at her home.

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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