FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS, continued

used in usually called embroidery, cross stitch, or floss thread. As
with all of the materials used to make all of the friendship
bracelets through time, these materials are very inexpensive to
purchase and come in a variety of colors.

I concentrated this research on those friendship bracelets made
by children from grade two to grade nine, but the bracelets now in
fashion are worn by people age six through forty and are made by
people in the same age groups. The tradition of wearing and
giving friendship bracelets will certainly continue among children
for generations to come. Making the bracelets will be an activity

to keep children from boredom in a dull class, on a rainy day
when they cannot head out to play, or on those dreaded days
when they are kept at home as punishment. The bracelets will vary
in materials used, in design, and in the shape of the finished
product; but they will all serve the same purpose. These bracelets
will be something inexpensive to make for friends and to be worn
as a fashion statement.

- Catherine Klutz

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For those of you who weren't at the last Children's Folklore
Section, IP A stands for the International Playground Association
who now calls itself the International Association for the Child's

Right to Play. It is an advocacy organization devoted to the safety
of playground activity and design. For the folklorist, the work of
the IP A can be of interest to those of us interested in the material
culture of children as well as the creation of environments for
children's traditions.

At the last Children's Folklore Section meeting, I described the
work of the IP A and was then asked to report on the activities of
the organization. Here is what the December newsletter was about.

The December issue was dedicated to the IPA/ USA meeting
that took place in Cincinnati in January of 1989,a short article on
adventure playgrounds, announcements of meetings and call for
papers, and summary of resolutions passed at the IPA conference
in 1986and in November of 1988.

I. The Resolutions passed at the above meetings are all associated
with the creation of standards for safe and well monitored

playgrounds. These resolutions call for the use of equipment
endorsed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and for
playgrounds designed with children's desires and needs in mind.
The resolutions also call for trained play leaders and a closer
relationship with the American Association for Leisure and
Recreation (AALR)

2. Debra A. Johnson's paper on Adventure Playgrounds was
published in this newsletter. "Adventure Playgrounds in After
School Programs" surveys the history of adventure playgrounds
from their beginning in Scandinavia in 1943 to their presence in
the United States today. An adventure playground is based on
the observation that children like to play with scrap materials
on construction sites. The adventure playground is an outdoor
environment in which these scraps are "transplanted" so that
children can play in a safe place. They are also monitored by
play leaders who are trained to advise without usurping the
child's creative energies and abilities.

3. Announcements

a) Meeting: Association of Childhood Education Inter-
national, 5-8 April 1989, Indianapolis, Hyatt Regency hotel.
Contact: Jerry Odland, Association for Childhood Education
International 11141 Georgia Avenue, Suite 200, Wheaton,
MD. 20902 (1-800-423-3563)

b) Call for Papers: for a special issue of Environments
Quarterly on "The Design of Community and Family
Environments for Children with Disabilities." Contact Elaine

Ostroff, Adaptive Environments Center, 621 Huntington
Avenue, Boston 02115, or call (617) 739-0088

c) News from the Consumer Product Safety Commission: on
a suit settled between the Miracle Recreation Equipment

Company and people affected by the dangerous design of
certain equipment.

d) PLAE, Inc. has launched" The Playful City" - "a
national effort to create guidelines for the development of
urban communities to support the needs of children, youth
and their families. The program is funded by the National
Endowments for the Arts." The guidelines are to be developed
at a workshop-conference to be held at Stanford University
in the Fall of 1989. For more information, contact PLAE,
Inc., 1824 Fourth Street, Berkeley, CA. 94710, or call
415-345-7523

Anyone interested in joining IPA may contact: Helen Stapel, 36
Deerfield Lane, Simsbury, CT. 06070, 1-800-553-2446.

- Jan Rosenberg

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Simon Bronner. American Children's Folklore. Little Rock, AR:
August House, 1988. A survey/study of contemporary children's
folklore. Also available in an annotated edition. Contains a picture
of five-year-old Simon Bronner.

Bengt af Klintberg. "Black Madame, Come Out!" Scandinavian
Yearbook of Folklore 1988(44): 155-167. A study of the spiritual;
seance in which the Black Madame is called out of a mirror.

c. W. Sullivan III. Welsh Celtic Myth in Modern Fantasy.
Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1989. A study of several authors' use
of Welsh Celtic myths and legends in literature.

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