My first experience with a library dates back over five decades. It is one of my favorite memories from my very early years – one that I have grasped and held onto, one that I will never let go.

I was a young student at St. Peter’s School here in Concord. It was a wonderful place to be in the 1960’s, a glimpse of the past, a time when life was simple. I attended this four-room school situated between Walker and Albin Streets with Bradly Street to the east. There were two grades for each of the four rooms and the students were primarily taught by the Sisters of Mercy. We learned our lessons well, but we also learned about morals and ethics and discipline. We knew that you must behave or you would be punished, a very good lesson indeed.

When our lessons were completed for the day, we were allowed to work on our assigned homework or we could choose to raise our hands and request permission to go to the library. Most days I raised my hand and received permission to go to the library. It was a simple bookcase in the back of the room with about fifty books. I would browse the books and read while standing near the hissing radiator in the back of the room. Sometimes I would pretend to be reading and gaze out the tall windows with the wavy glass at the Old North Cemetery where my ancestors were buried a century before. I thought it a bit scary with the old crooked moss-covered stones, but I was also very intrigued.

I would select my book and return to my desk where I opened it and started reading. Within minutes I was in another land in another time. Sailing upon a ship at sea or landing on the moon. I read fiction, I read nonfiction, I read about famous people and I read lots of history too. Shadows started to grow long across the street at the Old North Cemetery, shadows being cast by my ancestor’s gravestones. Time passed quickly when I read books I enjoyed, I was simply a time traveler trying to forget about the sadness we were exposed to in the world back then. I didn’t read the newspaper because I didn’t want to know about people that perished in the war in Vietnam. Books became my great escape and I forged a lifelong love with my pages.

When I was a little older my parents allowed me to walk to the Concord Public Library. We didn’t live too far away and sometimes I would ride my black Schwinn Stingray from the Whites Park area where I lived. I would ride through the park and down the Centre Street hill turning right onto Green Street at the bottom. Leaving my bicycle in the rack I would enter the Concord Public Library, this sacred place where I was not allowed to laugh in fear of the echoes it would create. Echoes that were met with stern glances from our beloved librarians. Hours would pass, a Saturday morning became a Saturday afternoon, lost in the volumes representing the past. I was so very fortunate to have the Concord Public Library nearby, some of my friends were not as fortunate…. But they had the Concord Bookmobile.

Bookmobiles had been around for many years. During the 1850’s a bookmobile was traveling about England called a Perambulating Library. It was simply a horse-drawn wagon filled with books. It would circulate around to the local villages bringing books to the young and old. History with bookmobiles continued to spread into other areas in England and reached our country in time.

The first bookmobile in the United States was reported to have been in Maryland in the year 1905. It was the Washington County Public Library in Hagerstown, Maryland that established this horse-drawn wagon that offered two hundred books. Though acknowledged as the first bookmobile in the United States, many small towns were known to bring books to outlying villages via horse and wagon. The concept became popular and it did in fact continue to grow.

It was in 1949 the concept of a bookmobile was discussed in Concord. The idea was known in other areas with noted success. Concepts were discussed and approvals were granted.

It was Concord Librarian Keith Doms who created the original plans for our first Concord Bookmobile. It was a 25-foot-long trailer with a very shiny aluminum exterior. The new bookmobile cost the City of Concord $3,500 and was paid for with the city budget. The trailer was equipped with 200 feet of shelving, tilted back a little so that the books didn’t fall off the shelf during travel. City Engineer Edward Beane and the Concord Public Works Department provided a truck with a trailer hitch to pull the new Concord Bookmobile between locations. Once completed 2,000 books were purchased at a cost of $3,000 to fill the bookmobile.

The Concord Bookmobile was staffed with the Concord Librarians from Green Street and a very structured schedule was implemented to spread knowledge around our beloved city. The original schedule called for the bookmobile to be at Dame School on the Concord Heights at 9 a.m. until noon for students and then the public was granted access from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. Each Tuesday the bookmobile was transported to Eastman School in East Concord.

Eastman School students were allowed access from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and then the bookmobile was transported over to Stearn’s Store in East Concord for general public access from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Each Wednesday the Concord Bookmobile was transported to the intersection or South and Bow Streets in the Concord South End for public access from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m.

As the years continued, the schedule was adjusted and additional stops were added. The Concord Bookmobile was a cherished development in Concord and enjoyed by most citizens. I was glad our rural areas had access to Concord Library books and wished the Concord Bookmobile was still with us today. Unfortunately, times change, technology changes and budgets are a necessity.

As the years progressed the Concord Bookmobile Trailer program concluded in 1958 and a motorized Concord Book Mobile followed from 1958 until 1989. In time, that program was eliminated too as more families owned automobiles making it easier to just visit the Concord Public Library on Green Street. Yes, books became my great escape and I forged a lifelong love with my pages. I own hundreds of vintage books and enjoy sitting quietly near my fireplace on a cold winter eve reading about life from long ago.