Summary

Game name (and type): 'Dog and the Bone' (running game)
Alternative types: games with sticks, games with found objects, play with props/equipment

Handwritten description of the running game 'Dog and the Bone' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by John Troode, a student at Double View Government Primary School, on 25 March 1955. To play, Troode explains that two captains select teams, allocating a number to each player. He writes that players stand in rows about twenty to thirty feet apart and a stick is placed on the ground in between the groups. One child calls out a number from each team. The corresponding players must race each other to collect the stick and return to their team without being caught by their opponent. The successful player accrues one point for their team.

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

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