Summary

Game name (and type): 'L"S"D' (ball game)
Alternative types: games with rhymes, ball-bouncing rhymes, language play

Handwritten description of the ball game 'L"S"D' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Lynette Shand, a student at Double View Government Primary School, presumably on 25 March 1955. Shand describes 'L"S"D' as a game which can be played anywhere by at least four players. She explains that different rhymes are recited to select 'he', providing the following example: 'Dip, red, white, blue, please little man will you go he!'. With their back to the other players, 'he' throws a ball over their shoulder while calling out a number. Shand states that the catcher of the ball accrues the value of the number announced, noting that the first to reach the value of a pound wins.

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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