Summary

Game name (and type): 'Broken Bottle' (ball game)
Alternative types: circle games, games with actions

Handwritten description of a ball game 'Broken Bottle' written for Dr Dorothy Howard by Peta Henderson, a student at Double View Government Primary School, presumably on 25 March 1955. Henderson describes 'Broken Bottle' as a game requiring a ball and a minimum of two players. For games involving two children, she writes that players face each other. For games with a larger number of children, players form a circle. To play, Henderson explains that players throw a ball to each other. She notes that every dropped ball results in a physical action, such as dropping onto one knee, which accumulate until a player is lying flat on the ground.

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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