Summary

Game type: 'Stalking' (creeping game)
Alternative types: elimination games

Handwritten description of the creeping game 'Stalking' compiled by Raymond Burt, an 11 year old student at Errol Street Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard on 25 August 1954. A 'creeping game' is a game in which players must creep towards another player or place without being seen or heard, or without being caught moving. Burt describes 'Stalkings' as a game suitable for boys and girls, which is usually played indoors all year round. To play, he explains that one child faces a wall and counts to 10 as the remaining players quietly approach. If the child turns around and catches any of the players still moving, they are eliminated from the game. Burt lists fellow players of 'Stalkings' including Len Petterson, Peter Deroache and Max Ryan.

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 heading decorated with red pencil; text written on one side only.

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