Clare Murphy (Mt Gambier)
I was eleven when we moved to Mount Gambier in the late 1950s, and a keen reader. I can’t remember how and when I became aware of the library in the Institute building near the corner of Commercial Street East and Bay Road but once I did, I became a regular borrower from their children’s section. We lived in Mount Gambier East, so I had to ride my bike to the library, carrying my books in the basket attached to the handlebars of my bike.
The librarian at the time was an elderly, grey-haired, unmarried woman who I don’t recall ever smiling. She sat or stood behind a high, long, wide, wooden counter from which she dispensed loans on books to library members. The library was always very quiet and, as I recall it, not particularly well patronised during the years I used it. The children’s section was in a long, shallow alcove near to the librarian’s counter, and I usually had the area to myself, perusing the titles on the shelves for as long as I liked. Over a couple of years, I worked my way through the children’s collection, particularly enjoying the Mary Grant Bruce Billabong series.
One day I discovered Rumer Godden’s book The Greengage Summer on the children’s bookshelves and happily took it home to read. Well! I still recall my astonishment at its contents. I am sure the librarian had not read it before she put it on the shelves! Dramatic and romantic, I felt it was very risqué – especially for a naive twelve or thirteen-year-old child such as myself. It was certainly an eye-opening read for me! I must have outgrown the children’s collection soon after that, as that was the last book I can recall borrowing from the Institute library.