After a year in the School Library Service HQ in Wellington, and living at home, I decided on a change, so took advantage of a relocation possibility within the National Library Service. My great ambition was to drive a mobile library - into the remote hills and mountains of the South Island of New Zealand, based in Christchurch. The librarians in charge of these vans took their vehicles out for a month at a time, dropping off books in rural communities, staying overnight in farmhouses, picking up fresh supplies of books from railway stations. The romance! the intrepitude! Scenery as in the Lord of the Rings films!
So off I went to learn how to drive a large truck, and after a couple of lessons was deemed fit to take the test. I could only drive with bare feet still, which worried the testing inspector somewhat, but I passed - turning my truck in three points on a very steep hill, knowing what tyre pressures I should have outside a town of whaetver population (the lower the number of souls the worse the road surface.).
Off I went to Christchurch, to stay in a YWCA hostel, and the first question asked on presenting myself to the librarian in charge was how old are you - 19 - sorry you are too young for the job. Why hadnt this been mentioned before?
I spent the next two years working in the Country Library Service, supporting the work of the mobile librarians, hearing their tales of running out of water in the radiator when climbing a steep hill....the scones.....the mo-ped in the body of the van for when they stopped overnight. Sigh.
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