Summary

Game name (and type): 'Knuckle Bones' (knucklebones)
Alternative type: play with props/equipment, jacks use, counting-out rhyme

Handwritten description of the game 'Knuckle Bones' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Margaret Whedon, a student at Double View Government Primary School, on 25 March 1955. Whedon describes 'Knuckle Bones' as a game requiring five, coloured knucklebones, an open space, and a minimum of two children aged between six and eleven, noting that it is usually played by four players. She writes that players sit in a circle, using the counting-out rhyme beginning 'One potato, two potato...' to determine who will play first. Whedon does list some of the game's rules; however, she does not provide details about how 'Knuckle Bones' is played.

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. Comprises two pages featuring borders ruled in red pencil; text printed on one side only.

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