Summary

Game type: 'Callings' (ball game)
Alternative types: play with props/equipment, games with actions

Handwritten description of the ball game 'Callings' compiled by Lucy Driscoll, a 12 year old student at Errol Street Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard on 25 August 1954. Driscoll describes 'Callings' as a game suitable for girls and boys, which is played at school or on the street all year round. To play, she explains that a ball is thrown into the air and a name of one of the players called out. The game's rules are somewhat unclear; however it appears that if the ball bounces twice on its return, players must take a number of steps dependent on the name called. If the ball only bounces once, Driscoll states that the ball is thrown again. She lists other players of 'Callings' including Lucy Driscoll, Bev Sinclair, Irene Hellier, Joyce Godfrey, Joyce Aghan, Hazel Vost and Elaine Boyle.

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. Features titles underlined in red pencil; text written on one side only.

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