Growing up in rural Mississippi, books were always a big part of my life. In fact, my school librarian was one of my absolute favorite people in my little world. (She still is, even after five decades.)
She helped guide me on adventures to places I would never have imagined. She broadened my horizons and introduced me to writers and genres that I was free to love or hate. The possibilities were endless, and the choices were always mine to make.
What power! What joy! What treasures I found in those written words. Those books were (and forever will be) some of the greatest adventures of my life.
But summertime cut into my reading adventures. So, needless to say, when the bookmobile came rolling into our little town during the long, hot, and often boring months of summer, I wanted to be one of the first customers in line.
To be honest, the bookmobile was actually a whole lot more exciting than my treks to the school library. Somehow, stepping into that cramped space, literally stuffed full of books with its own distinct smell of waiting stories, was more than enough to send my head spinning. That old bookmobile was like a tiny time machine or a portal to other worlds.
So, it pains me to think that very few kids today get to take those same literary, time-traveling trips via a bookmobile. Yes, I know that the internet is an amazing gift to readers of all ages, making an endless supply of books and stories instantly available. But there’s just something precious and powerful about taking that thrilling step onto a bookmobile!
Luckily for the kids of Lee County, the bookmobile is still moving right along, more than 80 years after it first started carrying books to readers in nearby rural areas – making it the oldest continually operating bookmobile in Mississippi.
In fact, on May 1, 1942, Tupelo’s first bookmobile (affectionately named Eve) headed out on its initial run to nearby Saltillo, Mississippi, to honor the first official donors to Eve’s fundraising efforts.
Just last year, the Lee County Library, located in Tupelo, with financial aid from Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi and the city of Tupelo, inaugurated a new bookmobile, the third in operation since the library’s opening in 1941.
Granted, the new bookmobile is a smaller van than the previous vehicle, but large adventures still await visitors who step into this library on wheels, with as many as 1,500 titles on board.
So, do yourself (and the children in your life) a favor!
Go to leeitawambalibrary.org/bookmobile and check out the bookmobile’s scheduled stops for this summer. Then, take an exciting trip into this traveling trove of literary wonder, and check out a few reading adventures of your own.
*All photos are courtesy of the Lee Itawamba Library System
