Monday, October 5, 2009

The Lee County Library "Bookmobile"



During the four month summer vacations from school in the 1950s we could get books to read from a mobile library that came to town periodically. I believe the frequency was monthly, but maybe more often. The "bookmobile" as shown above would park in the downtown area and we could check out a number of books to keep until the next visit.

It was operated by the Lee County library, but Prentiss county kids could use it also, probably since the town was on county lines. The driver and librarian, Mrs. Patton, worked at this for many years (see text).

The lower photo was the vehicle that most of us knew. It is shown parked at Pratts school (we believe) with some eager kids lined up to use the service.
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Upper image is from the Tupelo Journal in or around 1977 and is not complete, sorry. Sent by Joan Patton Wilroy. Lower image, made in the 1950s, is in the archives of the Pratts RCDC - submitted by Gerald McKibben.

Click images to enlarge.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Book Mobile was the highlight of my summer during my three years living at Pratt(Pratt's).
I walked or rode my bicycle at least two miles to get all the books I could carry and read them over and over until the next month.
Then I would walk to Ellis Wayne's house to swap "funny books", not "comic books"
V.T.

Anonymous said...

Don't remember much about the bookmobile but the Funny book trading sure rings a bell. I liked Batman and Archie, who I heard just married Veronica a few days ago.

Nan said...

I really remember the book mobile and Mrs. Patton. I was a regular customer and lived in Prentiss county also. Thank you for the memories of this and other things from long ago. Keep up the good work on this website.