A school holiday job at Auckland Museum imprinted 100-year-old songs in my head.
At the closing of 1971, my father got me a job at the Auckland Museum, working a 100-year-old printing press, reproducing articles published by the NZ Herald of 1871.
In my role as a printer’s apprentice, I printed thousands of A3 single-page newspapers on different colours of paper. I gave them to visitors, mostly kids, who watched me ink the plate on the flatbed printer with a roller as if I was painting a wall, placing the paper on the ink, then pulling on the handle of the press to imprint the type on the paper.
This exhibition was timed to coincide with the launch of Centennial Street, a reproduction of a street in Auckland, mostly Queen Street 100 years earlier. My father spent a lot of his time over a couple of years in a team working to bring this awesome project to fruition. He brought many artifacts home to work on including some amazing music players like the Regina Music Box which I had a lot of fun with.
The exhibition featured many artefacts from Auckland’s history, including a reel of music, that cycled tracks of 30 or 40 songs, which I learned by heart. These included I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen and the Tennessee Waltz. Before this job, I didn’t know either of them. Now they are firmly imprinted in my memory forever.
I really enjoyed that job, even though it took up pretty much my entire school holidays. I was part of a living exhibit and enjoyed the environment and the fellowship accorded me by everyone including the ‘Attendants’, who were mostly returned servicemen, it being a War Memorial Museum.
As always, because my father worked at the museum, I had the run of the place and in my breaks, I often went down to the library and read through old newspapers. I think they had a copy of every New Zealand Herald that had been published right up to that day, in big folders and I pored over stories and pictures, trying to imagine what it had been like to live in New Zealand in the 1800s. I was fascinated by stories such as the many days it would take to tow kauri logs from the Waitakeres to the port, behind a horse on the muddy Great North Rd. Now a journey of some 40 minutes by car.
The end result of my labours was that I earned enough money to buy an electric Diplomat Dobro, and a small 10-watt amp, which was my pride and joy for several years. It played well acoustically and electrically and the fretwork allowed me to play it as a normal guitar (with a resonator sound) and as a slide guitar. Being a big Blues fan and student allowed me to learn finger styles and how to play slide.
This picture is of me playing that guitar in the chapel at Auckland Alternative School, where I finished my college education.
I have been a fan of the slide guitar ever since I bought that Dobro and have played slide in a variety of gigs over the years, including country, blues and rock. I built up a collection of steels or slides. A few years ago I made up a video to demonstrate different slides you can buy and why you might want more than one. I found a great one on a Chinese website called Ali Express, you probably know of them. The one I am holding here is excellent and I think it shipped to New Zealand for the princely sum of $3. I have to admit to having used it to play the Tennessee Waltz from time to time, remembering those days at the museum.
I missed the job when it was over and I went back to school, even though it took all of my summer. And the songs stayed with me forever. If you’re interested in that guitar slide, you can still get it for around $5 from AliExpress today. I’d challenge you to find a new one of that quality in your local music store for a fraction of that price. Please note that is a direct link, I am not after an affiliate fee or anything, just being helpful. It might make a great Christmas or birthday gift for your favourite guitar-playing friend or family member.
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