Summary

Game type: 'Hit the Post' (ball game), 'Tickilish [ticklish] Jungle' (chasing game)
Alternative types: team games, running games, tickling games

Handwritten descriptions of the ball game 'Hit the Post' and the chasing game 'Ticklish Jungle' (incorrectly spelt 'tickilish' throughout), compiled by Des Kent, an 11 year old student at Errol Street Primary School, for Dr Dorothy Howard on 25 August 1954. Kent describes 'Hit the Post' as a boys game played all year round. To play, he explains that two players compete for the ball, which is bounced, attempting to knock it to their team members. To score a goal, players must kick the ball into a post. Kent notes that the first team to score five goals is declared the winner. He lists other players of 'Hit the Post' including Arther [sic] Leith, Morris Kearney, Brian Reese, Dick Reese, Johnny Reese, Jimmy Brown and Ron McKendry. Kent also describes the girls' game 'Ticklish Jungle', which requires about 20 players standing in a row in front of a single child. Usually played on a street, he explains that the row of players must pass the single child with their arms raised. The child attempts to tickle the other players, who are eliminated from the game is they lower their arms in response. Kent lists players of 'Ticklish Jungle' including Doreen Reese, Margret [sic] McKendry, Pat McKendry, Bevely [sic] Brown, Pammy Benne, and Maureen Hummphy [sic].

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 descriptions in blue ink on paper. Features text written on both sides of page.

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