09/04/2014
Meningie Croquet Club Book Launch
By: Mavis Mariager
A book detailing the history of the Meningie Croquet Club was successfully launched by Club Patron Helen Dodd on Sunday afternoon April 6 at the Uniting Church Hall, with almost all copies being sold on the day.
A feature of the launch was a collection of memorabilia donated to the Museum, accepted on the Museum’s behalf by its President and SA Citizen of the Year Peter Ancell.
These items were housed in an old pram donated by Peter Turner, which was used in 1978 – 79 to transport the equipment from his home to the courts.
It was good to see so many locals and visitors from as far afield as Victor Harbor, and especially the four Foundation Members Lois Taylor, Pat Boundy, Ros Betts and Rosemary Edkins attending the event.
It is very important that social histories such as this be recorded before it is too late to do so.
One of the major problems when researching a history is that as the years pass, records are lost and memories become unreliable.
There are bureaucrats working in Canberra whose job it is to collect these social histories so that our way of life is on record for future generations.
So we will forward a copy of our little history to them, and also one copy will go to the State Library of South Australia and one to our library at the Meningie Area School.
There are other histories from our own district which perhaps should be similarly recorded.
For example, there are wonderful stories of the early days from Jack Mincham, and there was a recent story in The Lakelander about the 30th. Anniversary of the local Garden Club and all its activities over the years.
Another which springs to mind is the Meningie Bowling Club. Its history is just waiting to be researched and written – it would be quite a task, of course.
Now some may find the front cover of the book a little strange. We wanted to show the world what happened to our lovely Lake Albert when the River Murray ran into serious trouble in 2008.
The photo we chose shows the dry lake bed, which even we oldies had never previously seen, with a few hardy souls playing croquet on a court they had constructed on a piece of “beach!”
These were tough times indeed for Meningie!
But we in the country are used to dealing with adversity, and the fact that the Club is still in existence and thriving is testimony to that.
