Sue Lees has kindly made available to me her notes from the address she made at Time Out's 25th birthday celebrations last evening.
Time Out opened its doors six months after the 87’ crash. At
that time Mt Eden was a different place,
less polished, there was no Frasers Cafe next door, no wine bars, but it
was an immensely interesting place,
colourful characters drifted through the village from the profusion of
half way houses. I liked the priorities of those early Mt Edenites who drove
old rust buckets but should you call into their home for a drink and you would
find the walls decked with a Hanly, a Nigel Brown or a McCahon.
The Auckland book
scene was different too.... there was no
Unity in Auckland..and I was fresh back from London where after stints in what
should have been exciting magazine and film work. I realised the thing I’d enjoyed
most in my time away was my very first job in London, being severely underpaid
working in Hatchard’s bookstore in Piccadilly-
The bookshop idea had been brewing for a while. During my
University years I had worked every weekend at the Airport Bookshop and working that grave yard shift in the transit lounge selling
chocolates and Playboys to Japanese tourists gave me a lot of time to think about what a book shop should not be.
I was only meant to
be home just for a few weeks at Christmas.. Dave was waiting for me back in London.
I remember picking up the Herald and seeing
the ad for the lease of the building in the property section.. So I came for a
look..Cushla Kelly was a dressmaker here and was moving out. What 23 year old
in the 80’s wouldn’t have been tempted by the New York style loft upstairs and
the exposed brick ?
I then faced two of life’s universal dilemmas, Love and
money. Dave still had the travel bug and was waiting for me in London and I was
back here contemplating signing an eight year building lease.
I borrowed $ 70,000 dollars from my folks and to this day I
remain incredibly grateful for the faith they put in me and allowing me to the privilege
to peruse a mad rush of enthusiasm. That money in those days covered the lease,
the first years rent, renovation and the fit out of the shop and all the
initial stock. By the time the shop sold I had paid them the money back but I
like to think their investment enriched their lives too. My Mum who hailed from
a tiny South Island town made her first gay friends at the shop who she adored and my Dad loved helping me find junk for the
ever changing window displays.
A few months after
the shop opened Dave came home. We lived upstairs here..There was coffee and
couches downstairs for the customers and many lifelong friendships were made..Especially
with fellow retailers.Eliza Maberly from Nature’s Decor, my dear friend, who we
lost in 2010 and Elly Smith from Talk of Turkey who I sublet upstairs here to
in 1991.
There were poetry evenings, memorable book launches and
author visits..one of the liveliest was Tales of the City author, Armistead
Maupin from San Francisco whose signing
table on the street had a queue of partying very happy gay men that stretched
right up the block ,our own Mt Eden Mardi Gras .A jam packed shop for an
evening with Richard Ford-and a car crash at the lights outside by two blokes
distracted by a very attractive, Rarotongan lady, dancing in the window display
wearing only coconut shells and a grass skirt, for the launch of Dick Scott’s
Years of the Poohbar.
My Mum once chased Marcus Lush up Mt Eden road yelling at
him.. after a launch and apprehended him as a shop lifter only to discover he
had quite properly just left with his free review copy. One now deceased,
famous , well heeled Aucklander was a huge, very loyal , early supporter of the
shop from day one ... he would come in weekly and spend about $ 300 bucks –a
fortune in those days..but he would always sneak one cheap small paperback in his inside jacket
pocket.. his little thrill and no I’m
not telling you who.
The shop was like a baby at the beginning..I couldn’t afford
staff for the first two years ..even having a loo break was problematic. The
shop became my whole world for four years.. and like a baby Time out soon took
over my heart and when the time came for Dave and I to go travelling again, it
was a painful parting.
The shop has been blessed by two very caring and capable
successive owners and I am so happy about that. The wise and wickedly humoured Joy
Draper and by Wendy who has now had the
shop for the longest period, during a time of unprecedented challenges for
bookshops she is doing a phenomenal job.
Two weeks ago
we went to Wellington to see our boy into his University hostel, we spent an
hour altogether in Unity. Our boy and girl are both readers... but I saw a
light go on in Bella, my 13 year old’s eye’s-it was passion ,passion for books- pure and simple....bookshops and the magic
that they conjure up with all that potential for pathos, joy, wit and wisdom all contained within four small walls is a
mysterious force
I guess after 25 years,
Time Out could be considered a Mt Eden
fixture-an institution. It is a place that I certainly get pleasure from
knowing still exists and operates. Kindles, e readers... OK.I have lots of
friends who love them.. but to me they
are about as rewarding as a virtual lover compared to the real thing—A bookshop, the smell of the paper, the weight
of the book ..the relationship , the trust between bookseller and reader, it is
a form of communion.... and without it
we are left sitting on our own tapping a keyboard to download a novel with the click .
If we want village
meeting places like Time Out to still exist ,we need to step away from those key boards
and physically interact with the living, cultural world. It is my hope that Time Out continues to
receive the incredible support it has enjoyed from the Mount Eden community
over the years and one day I will be hobbling up these stairs to celebrate its
50th anniversary....................................
Footnote:
Time Out's original logo. The staff wore t-shirts sporting this logo. Sue Lee's husband, Dave, wore one of the original t-shirts to last night's celebrations.
Footnote:
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