This post was prompted by Julie at Anglers Rest and her series " Book of Me - Written by You", where she asks us to record, for future descendants, memories and insights about our own lives.
Here the theme is "When I Grow Up, I want to be......."
From an early age, after school visits to the local library, I played at being a Librarian
and remember one Christmas being delighted at getting in my stocking a
date stamp. I made up issue labels for my books, and dragooned my
family into being customers, so I could enthusiastically stamp away.
When I started secondary
school, my parents attended a parent's evening and came back asking if I
had any idea of what I wanted to do when I grew up - I had no strong
views, so said a Librarian as that's what came into my head, plus it
was a way of getting my parents off my back!
My father was keen for me to go into a bank, as he thought that was a
good job for a girl (it was the 1950's!), As I was hopeless at maths, I
knew this would not be for me. I also knew I could never be
a nurse, (a popular career choice at the time), as I had a great fear
of anything to do with hospitals.
I
read all the gamut of career fiction and articles in "Girl"
magazine - Sue Barton District Nurse, Angela Air Hostess, Belle of the
Ballet, Kay from "the Courier", Claudia of the Circus etc.
Becoming
an Air Hostess was regarded as the glamour job of the day and I rather
fancied the idea of travel - but realistically I knew, even at that
age, I did not fit the image - being child who wore glasses and had
straight hair in plaits or a pony tail.
Later
on, going into the Civil Service was a career path suggested to me -
but no-one would actually tell me what would I be doing in the Civil
Service? Teaching was an obvious easy career option for a girl, and I
did toy with the idea - I liked young children and played the piano (an
asset in those days) but my aunt, an infant head, was not exactly
encouraging.
So what did I become? A Librarian - and yes I did conform a bit to the stereotyped image - the glasses did it!
Does
anyone remember the Smirnoff vodka advert where the librarian (dowdy
clothes, hair in a bun and of course wearing spectacles), whips off her
glasses, loosens her hair shaking it into a tousled look, shortens her
skirt, undoes her top buttons - and gets a new look and new life? I can't say that was me,
though I did have a spell at wearing contact lenses.
Instead, I spent my time trying to counteract the image that all librarians did was a boring task of stamping books!
And what was my working life really like?
My employment history could be summed up as "Fish Girl to Family Historian"
Fish Girl
- My first job the summer I left school was helping out at a
fishmonger's owned by a friend's father who was looking for some one to
fill in for staff on holiday. It was totally out of character for me,
but I stuck it out gutting some fish (for making herring rolls, I
think), washing down the slabs and I managed somehow to cope with the
cash side - maths was never my strong point and this was before the days
of electronic tills. At home we ate healthily from the left over
stocks of fish I took back to Mum.
Shop Girl for Cakes, Books & Tartan Trash
- For future summer and Christmas jobs, I opted for a less messy
side of retail life, ranging from a busy bakery counter (dreaded having
to make up the cardboard cake boxes in a hurry as I was all thumbs) to
selling what we called "tartan trash" to tourists on Princes Street in
Edinburgh - think garish red tasteless Stewart tartan souvenirs.
My
favourite was a bookshop where I enjoyed tidying the shelves and making
sure everything was in order from the Pan and Penguin paperbacks in
their familiar white and orange covers to the Classics, bound in mock
midnight blue leather. One Christmas I worked in a general
stationery store that sold calculators and was clueless when facing
questions such as "Why was this one more expensive and what did it do?"
I
can't recollect receiving anything that could be called "training" -
you were just expected to turn up on time, wear an often ugly uniform,
pick up procedures, work hard, have plenty of stamina to be on your
feet all day, be respectful to superiors, especially if there was the
dreaded visit from Head Office, get on with the job - and sink or swim. Life
could be boring if there were not many customers around, but if the shop was busy, it became a good source of anecdotes when I met up with fellow students,
as we exchanged horror stories of our holiday jobs.
Stuck in a Snowstorm - I
studied history at university, and as a student had various Saturday
and holiday jobs in Edinburgh City Libraries, most memorably getting
stuck in a mobile library on a hill in a snowstorm!
An American Adventure: Having always
lived at home, I took the plunge to move 3000 miles trans-Atlantic. I
had the chance to work in the USA for a year as part of an
exchange scheme for trainee librarians and my placement was at Radcliffe
College, the sister college to Harvard in Cambridge, Mass. I loved
Boston and New England, and took advantage, with another British girl I
met, of taking the Greyhound bus offer of "99 dollars for 99 days of
travel" around the States - a wonderful time.
At the Cutting Edge -
My second professional job after library school was as Information Officer at the Edinburgh's College of Education in Edinburgh with a
remit to set up a Modern Studies Information Resource. This was long
before the Internet, and the role involved setting up project files of
ephemera - mainly press cuttings, and compiling source lists for
students. I got to look though all the quality daily papers - a great
job and nothing boring about it. I had always fancied working as a
newspaper librarian, or as a BBC researcher, though jobs are few and
far between, so this was coming close to it.
Dumbo to Dinosaurs -
I was a stay-at-home Mum, when a newsletter from my daughter's primary school announced that a school
auxiliary had been asked to set up a library in the school. My
professional hackles arose - obviously a job that the head teacher felt
anyone could do! So I got in touch, took on the role, and I was
back classifying the school collection and creating a catalogue. As
it was a voluntary task, I could take my time and have a good look
through all the books, with dinosaurs seeming to be the most popular
topic - not one I could relate to.
Was the Abbey Bombed?
This was one of the very many quirky queries I faced when working in
the local tourist information centre network for over 20 years. It was
never dull as we helped visitors get the most out of of their holiday
and was a source of many humorous anecdotes. And the answer to the
question? Well - the 12th century Jedburgh Abbey was destroyed in 1544
by Henry VIII's army which invaded south Scotland in what was known as
the "Rough Wooing" as Henry tried to enforce the marriage of his son
Edward to the young Mary Queen of Scots - some 400 years before World
War Two fighter planes. I loved this job - meeting people from all over the world, answering questions, preparing displays and compiling fact sheets.
Back to my Roots
- Following redundancy, and a spell of free lancing in tourism, I went
back to my academic roots of history and librarianship, working in the
Library Service's Local Studies Dept. Not quite a full circle, but
almost. My final role was as Family History Researcher at the Heritage
Hub, Hawick - and how many people can say they found a job linked to a
hobby - and we all know that family history can be exciting, adventurous and never boring!
So - being a librarian has served me very well!
.
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The Heritage Hub, Hawick, Scottish Borders
www.heartofhawick.co.uk/heritagehub
[This article has been adapted from a posting in 2011]
Copyright © 2014 · Susan Donaldson. All Rights Reserved
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Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity to share their family history and memories through photographs.
