Irene Kish Bullock
Book Truck Driver in 1936
"I've never stopped reading."
In the summer of 1936 Irene Kish, then a 20 year old graduate of the Jersey City Normal School, worked as the driver of the Atlantic County Library book truck. A former teacher and principal, she sat down with us recently and reminisced about her summer with the library.
|
|
|||||
 |
In 1936, Irene remembers, many of her stops were in Margate, Longport and Ventnor and most of her patrons on the book truck were adults. Today most bookmobile patrons are children. On the book truck Irene got a firsthand look at all the new books. In fact, she reminded us 1936 was the year Gone With the Wind was published, and she still enjoys re-reading that Margaret Mitchell classic. Still an avid reader, Irene enjoys using a KOBO, a brand of eReader. |
||||
| In the photo above, Irene poses with a photograph of a book truck similar to the kind she drove during her summer as the book truck driver. | |||||
|
|
|||||
|
|||||
"As a college student, I worked in the college library. I think that helped me get the job down here as a book truck driver," she told us. "I always loved South Jersey. My parents moved to a farm in Dorothy, near Mays Landing, in 1932. I played the organ at our church in Dorothy."
It was at that church she met her future husband, Harry Bullock. The Bullocks had three children: Kathryn, Tom and Larry.
She was accompanied on her visit to us by son, Larry Bullock, of Baltimore, MD.
Larry Bullock describes his mother this way ...
"Mom was a school teacher for 35 years. She was my 4th grade teacher. Even though my mother, she didn't cut me any breaks - I think she was harder on me and expected me to set an example. Mom always stressed education. In fact, she went back and got another degree from Glassboro State College when she was in her 50s."
History of the bookmobile
In its beginnings, the library operated strictly as a bookmobile. The book truck often became stuck in the gravel filled or muddy roads of Atlantic County, and sometimes had to be pulled out by Franklin Roosevelt's Work Progress Administration (WPA) road workers.
By 1939, over 70 area schools were served by the Atlantic County Library bookmobile. At that time, the library's annual circulation of books was 32,000. Nearly every town maintained a collection as well, although often only a bookcase in a private home.
 |
 |
