It’s not often a brightly painted clown face plays second banana to anyone, but Saturday’s center of attention was author June Melby, not the clown sign leaning against the podium where Melby stood at the inaugural Oconto County Reads.
The clown face represented the 18th hole hazard at the Tom Thumb mini golf course where Melby spent her summers as a kid and teen and serves as the title for the 18th chapter of her memoir “My Family and Other Hazards.”
Oconto County Reads was organized by the public libraries in Gillett, Lakewood, Lena, Oconto, Oconto Falls and Suring, in conjunction with the Oconto County Library Services Board. The summer event climaxed with a visit by Melby, who read excerpts from her book and talked with about 30 people gathered at the Falls Area Performing Arts Center at Oconto Falls High School.
“We want the people in our community — our county — to be avid readers,” said Amanda Burns, director of the Suring Area Public Library.
Melby said she hoped the group experience inspired discussion about her story.
“That’s really all any author could ask for, is to inspire people to talk to each other,” she said.
Burns said she overheard members of a book club giggling as they discussed the book, recalling their teenage years and the fun they’ve had playing mini golf.
For Melby, her favorite memory of summers at Tom Thumb was the fun.
“People had so much fun. They got to be goofy,” she said, recalling how the fun started even before people took their first swing.
Grownups would always fight over the blue ball at the ticket booth, she said, so much so, the family invested in another shade of blue for balls.
Melby said her dad stopped playing the radio at Tom Thumb because he wanted to hear people laugh.
Her parents bought the mini golf course as a way to bring people together — give them a place to play and have fun, she said. They also kept the course affordable for families, forgoing profits to keep prices reasonable, a business practice Melby said she didn’t appreciate until she was an adult.
Melby’s editor referred to the memoir as a valentine to her parents, and Melby agreed with the image.
“It’s really about my parents. I had to put it in words,” she said.
Melby said she was inspired to write the book after her parents decided to sell the mini golf course.
“The place meant so much to me, that’s why I wrote it,” she said.
Amy Peterson, director of the Lena Library, said she enjoyed learning the backstory of Melby’s memoir.
“I think it was fun to hear the story read out loud,” she added.
“You get that emotion that was behind the words when she reads it,” Burns said.
The book struck a chord with Marycarolyn Jagodzinski, a member of the Suring Friends of the Library. She visited Tom Thumb this summer and brought her score card to Saturday’s event.
“When I read the book, it was so meaningful and descriptive, I had to check it out,” Jagodzinski said. When she was in Stevens Point for a meeting, she drove to the Chain ‘O Lakes to play the course and talk with the owner. She snapped photos of the hazards at each hole and shared them with Melby, who lives in Iowa, but returns to the course on occasion.
Melby said she was happy to hear the course is in good condition.
“We all put our hearts and souls into it, so there’s so much invested,” she said.
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