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One of the most common memories for girls about their play involved "copy houses" or "cobby houses" (depending on what community you came from). Copy houses were special places - in the woods, down by the water, behind or in a shed - where girls played house. A copy house usually included objects such as broken pottery, discarded kitchenware and cardboard boxes that could be magically transformed by the girls' imaginations into sets of fine china, cooking pots and furniture, all that was necessary to make a proper house. Some copy houses would be set up and taken apart in a day. Others would remain in place until the snow covered them, the rain washed them away or the girls grew bored with them.2
Girls finding treasures for their copy house.1968
Roddickton, NL
Credits:Candace Cochrane
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We'd go to the beach and make playhouses on the shore with rocks. You'd make your living area, your kitchen, your dining area. And nobody better touch it! You would have that there and go back to it day after day. You'd have your play dishes all set up in it. It was down below our house.Violet Jacobs Decker - Roddickton
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Girls playing with their dolls.1963
Hooping Harbour
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We certainly developed our imaginations and were creative because we didn't have toys. We would take lumber and pile it up in a criss-cross way sp ot wouldn't warp.There would be an opening in the middle oand we would call that our copy house or playhouse. And we would have broken dishes and things from the house that weren't any good to uwe anymore and we would get out there and play.Joan Weir Kinden - Roddickton
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Uncle Elias Randall in front of the pink cookhouse1960s
Little Harbour Deep
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Three girls at play by the shed.1968
Roddickton, NL
Credits:Candace Cochrane
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Cobby house? We used to say "copy house", only it was an old hen house. We ad so much fun playing that in dad's wood shed.Our dolls were our children. We sliced apples for bread.Betty Fitzgerald Nickerson and Theresa Foley - Conche
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Kids playing in the woods.1960s
Hooping Harbour
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