 
Smogboy
Member
Username: Smogboy
Post Number: 5712
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 1:53 am: |    |
Does anyone here have any recollections on the Detroit Public Library's ol' Bookmobile? I loved that thing as a kid and remember feeling so guilty when I forgot to return my books in time. |
Jams
Member
Username: Jams
Post Number: 5763
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 5:20 am: | |
I saw the current one parked at Jefferson and Van Dyke yesterday.
Mondays was the day in my youth I checked out and returned books at the corner of Springwells and Navy, across from the Tasti-Freeze in SW Detroit. |
Rickinatlanta
Member
Username: Rickinatlanta
Post Number: 101
Registered: 07-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 8:38 am: | |
Jams,
That's the one I went to also! Couldn't wait to get new books to read. Seems I remember it as being a gray color? |
Detroitplanner
Member
Username: Detroitplanner
Post Number: 1353
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 10:11 am: | |
I was a bigger fan of the swim-mobile myself..... |
Gibran
Member
Username: Gibran
Post Number: 902
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 10:35 am: | |
there was a gray one that used to come to St. Brendans (Tuesday nights)...I remember many a summer sitting on porch when it was raining reading a book from the Bookmobile....I really must of loved reading since I am a junkie even today. |
Smogboy
Member
Username: Smogboy
Post Number: 5713
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 10:52 am: | |
Reading's not such a bad thing to get hooked upon, Gibran. I'd be willing ot bet you that if there were more kids today with that "addiction" there'd be less problems on the streets now. I loved my Bookmobile as a kid- not just because of the novelty of a library on wheels but as a great place to discover cool books. And when I found out I could order books NOT on the Bookmobile, that opened another massive venue to me as well as a kid!
Long live books! |
Ptpelee
Member
Username: Ptpelee
Post Number: 21
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 11:05 am: | |
My Father drove the DPL Bookmobile from 1971 until 1986, when he got his job back in the Bindery Division. I used to ride it to various stops on the West side. Some of the East side stops were pretty rough and he didn't let me go there. One time the Swimmobile had the same stop at the same time.... half the books were found in the water! They never did that again.... |
Southwestmap
Member
Username: Southwestmap
Post Number: 885
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 11:40 am: | |
I, too, loved the Bookmobile. It came to the City playfield near my school every Wednesday night. In my memory, its always summer and I am waiting in line with a lot of expectation for the next good read. We opened our books to the back cover and piled them up to make returning check-in easier. We were pros at library efficiency.
Not all my friends came. I was sort of on my own.
In those days I liked stories of girls in the upper Michigan wilderness, Canada, Australia. I also read everything by Lenora Mattingly Webber (why can I remember her name and not the name of the series heroine?). I loved the feel of the library bindings and I did not disdain the tattered copies - I knew that their condition reflected heavy readership. |
Smogboy
Member
Username: Smogboy
Post Number: 5717
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 - 1:51 am: | |
It was on the Bookmobile that I discovered reading those kid mysteries, Encyclopedia Brown. They weren't any great American novels by any stretch but fun nevertheless.
And Southwestmap, are you thinking of Beany Malone? Or were you thinking of the Belford folks? |
Southwestmap
Member
Username: Southwestmap
Post Number: 889
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 - 9:40 am: | |
How does Smogboy know about Beany Malone - yes, it was her. I loved her. |
Eric_w
Member
Username: Eric_w
Post Number: 286
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, August 18, 2007 - 11:56 pm: | |
I used to go to one back in the 60's. I lived on Greenlawn near Fenkell-it would be on a street on the north side of Fenkell-Woodingham I think. I borrowed a lot books from there back then. |
Stinger4me
Member
Username: Stinger4me
Post Number: 1
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 2:08 pm: | |
I can remember John Small and Ike Williams. They were the drivers of the bookmobiles in the mid to late 60's. Making stops at a lot of places to provide reading material for those too far from branch libraries. |