Texian Stomping Grounds Page: 141
162 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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PIONEER CHILDREN'S
GAMES*
By Ida B. Hall
There was a great deal of work to be done in a pioneer home.
Boys did farm work and helped with the cattle. Girls helped
their mothers in the house. But there was leisure, too. During
winter nights children sat around the fireplace and told stories
and riddles while potatoes roasted in the hot ashes. Ready-made
toys were scarce, and seldom was there money with which to
buy them. Smaller children rode stick horses and see-saws,
swung in trees, and rolled hoops. Girls made dolls of rags and
corn shucks. Boys made their own toy wagons and bird and
rabbit traps. They fished, hunted, waded creeks, diverted little
streams to form waterfalls and built miniature water-wheels.
Pioneer children had also a large repertoire of traditional
games handed down to them by their parents. The material
concerning these games that follow has been collected in recent
years from persons whose grandparents and great-grandparents
came to Texas from various parts of the United States, par-
ticularly from the South and East. Almost any old person, re-
gardless of his native state, is likely to have played some of these
games, which often involve meaningless rhymes and jingles ex-
hibiting local variation, and many suggest Mother Goose.
I. OUTDOOR GAMES
Chickimee Craney Crow
Any number of children entered this game. They formed
a line facing the "Old Witch," who sat on the ground. Each
child caught hold of another by the shoulder and, following the
leader, marched around the old witch, chanting a kind of song,
or lilt, as follows:
Chickimee, chickimee, craney crow,
I went to the well to wash my toe.
When I got back, one of my blackeyed chickens was gone.
*This article may well be compared with "Tales and Rhymes of a Texas
Household," by Bertha McKee Dobie, in Texas and Southewestern Lore (Pub-
4oations No. VI of the Texas Folk-Lore Society), Austin, 1927, pp. 23-71.
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Texian Stomping Grounds (Book)
Collection containing sketches of post-war life in East Texas, including descriptions of early recreations and games, stories about Southern food and cooking, religious anecdotes, Negro folk tales, a first-hand account of a Negro folk play about the life of Christ, and other miscellaneous folklore. The index begins on page 159.
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Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank), 1888-1964. Texian Stomping Grounds, book, 1941; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67663/m1/149/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.