Summary

Game type: 'Yacht Hoppy' (hopscotch game)
Alternative types: games with shapes, taw use

Handwritten description of the hopscotch game 'Yacht Hoppy' compiled by Cliff Wynn, a student at East Fremantle Government Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard between 1954-1955. Wynn describes 'Yacht Hoppy' as a game suitable for girls and boys, which requires a maximum of 10 players. He notes that the game is played on a footpath or hard surface usually during the winter months, illustrating the required hopscotch pattern in an accompanying, hand drawn diagram. Wynn explains that a wooden or stone taw (spelt 'tore' throughout) is kicked between bases. He notes that neither the taw nor player can land on a line. Wynn states that the number of bases reached by each player are tallied with the highest scorer declared the winner.

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 lined paper. Features a hand drawn diagram in blue ink below text; text written on one side of paper only.

More Information