Summary

Game names (and types): 'Stations' (word games)
Alternative types: circle games

Handwritten description of the word game 'Stations' composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by Lynette Boyd, a twelve year old student at East Camberwell Girls Secondary School, in 1954-1955. Boyd describes 'Stations' as a game requiring twelve to fourteen players, which can be played all year round in an indoor area. She lists some of the other players of 'Stations' including Cecily Cohen, Margaret Murdoch, Marilyn Jordan, Beverley Brown, Elizabeth Boyd, and Joyce Rudd. To play, Boyd writes that players form a circle and each select a name of a different railway station. One child sits on a chair at the circle's centre; another remains outside the group of players and calls out two or three station names at a time. Boyd explains that the corresponding children must exchanges places with each other before the child seated in the centre can obtain one of their positions within the circle. Boyd provides an annotated, hand drawn diagram to illustrate the various positions of each player.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's game 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 paper. Comprises two sheets; text written on one side only. First page features a letterhead printed in black ink; second page features an annotated, hand drawn diagram in pencil and borders ruled in red ink.

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