Pat Scholefield (Williamstown)
I grew up in Williamstown in the late 1940s/1950s and the Institute was very much an integral part of community life there and I know it still is today. Even though Williamstown was only a small rural town in those days, it always had a strong community spirit that involved most of its residents.
In the mid-1950s I participated in a Mock Debutante Ball that was held in the Institute. I vividly remember my dress that was blue taffeta with a net overlay. It was made by a local Williamstown dressmaker and wearing makeup, probably for the first time in my life, I thought I looked and felt pretty special. My partner was a local lad (a relative) and we were presented to Senator Nancy Buttfield who was a local Liberal Senator at the time.
Ballroom dances were held regularly in the Institute. I, and others my age, attended more to watch than to dance although we did like to join in the Progressive Barn Dance. We would sit up the front and not only watch the dancers but the band as well; the band consisted of a drummer (a James Dean look-alike we swooned over), a pianist and a saxophonist.
The ladies sat around the walls of the Institute whilst the men congregated at the back. Once a dance was announced the men would race across the room, sliding on the sawdust floor, to ask one of the ladies for the dance, returning her to her seat at the end of the dance. The men quite often disappeared between dances for refreshments; these usually took the form of beer that they had hidden under a bush that was the safe distance of 300 yards (?) from the Institute. It was illegal in those days to drink alcohol within 300 yards of a dance.
Midway through the evening there would be a ‘good old country’ supper, provided by the local ladies and served in the Supper Room behind the stage. I can still see the tempting array of little sandwiches, scones, sausage rolls, lamingtons, jelly cakes, sponges etc.
We called the movies ‘Pictures’ back when we were growing up. Picture shows were regularly held in the Institute. There was always a full program of a newsreel, a cartoon and two full-length films, with an interval in between. Sitting with the latest boyfriend at the Pictures would have been our earliest dating experiences.
We had school concerts in the Institute and I remember the excitement of being on stage in plays. Quite a few of us learnt ballet from Mrs Austin, an English migrant, who lived out at the South Para Reservoir that was being constructed during the years 1948 to 1958. I remember we also had Harold Raymond concerts. He was a blind entertainer who toured country towns and gave concerts. I remember selling tickets for his concerts beforehand by knocking on people’s doors.
Once a week, for the duration of the morning, a bank teller from the ES&A bank at Lyndoch came to Williamstown and provided a banking service in one of the front rooms of the Institute. My mother took all the banking from my father’s butchering business to this bank on a weekly basis.
