Lyle Talbot, who at age 63 gave up his job as a long-distance truck-driver, initially thought to commit the next two years of his life to operating the Multicounty Bookmobile out of his hometown Panguitch until he would qualify for Social Security benefits. That plan resulted in making the weekly rounds between Big Water, Kanab, Mount Carmel, Orderville, Glendale, Alton, Duck Creek, Hatch, Panguitch, Henrieville, Cannonville, Bryce Canyon residential, Tropic, Escalante and Boulder for the next 11 years!
Lyle Talbot amidst some of the myriad offerings of the multi-county Bookmobile during its final day in Orderville. With his retirement presently in effect, he reminisced over some the abundant memories recalled from his 11 years serving our rural communities. Photo by Jerry Melrose.
Even with the requisite nightly layovers in Kanab and Escalante, that totaled 35 hours. Although he was offered the opportunity to extend that time to a 40-hour week, he declined, not able to conscientiously justify the extra five.
During the war in Vietnam [known as The American War there], he served as a PFC (Private First Class) Fourth-Class Infantryman, where early-on in the Iron Triangle of Binh Duong Province, after his 24-man platoon had been dropped via helicopter into a rice-paddy field, while suddenly engaged in a crossfire between advancing Viet Cong fighters from behind them and fellow U.S. forces ahead, he found himself among only four members of his group of two dozen to have not been injured or killed.
He and Katheryn, his wife of 53 years, have 11 grandkids from four of their surviving six children. They have a son in Draper and a daughter in Murray, as well as two daughters in St. George. Two among them are teachers and one is an attorney, as is one son-in-law.
Melissa Griffiths, whose entrepreneurial internet recipe enterprises can be found at blessthismessplease.com, barbarabakes.com and longbournfarm.com, as well as Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest, enthusiastically says, “Love Lyle! He has been the best librarian for this town and the Bookmobile, because he cares. He knows you by name, he knows your kids! He’s always been so patient when we have not had our books very quickly. He’s been very, very kind when we have misplaced books, or needed to replace books. My kids think Lyle thinks they are his favorite. They all feel like, ‘I’m the favorite!’
“It’s such a great learning environment to feel like you can take the books and there’s not too much pressure of when you’re going to get them back the second that they need to get back. Lyle has just shown so much kindness over the years, even with a whole bunch of little kids and toddlers. Now they’ve grown, he just really instills a love of reading and kindness, because of who he is. We will miss him immensely!”
Lyle, with a note of nostalgia echoing through his devoted career, shares, “You know, these kids: they’re just amazing! And their parents! There’s so many of these parents who came to the Bookmobile when they were kids. And grandparents who came to the Bookmobile when they were kids. And so, they’re really excited about it!
“Even people, when they were traveling through, you know, they’ll stop and take pictures, and they’ll come in and say, ‘We didn’t even know that they still existed!’ They didn’t know they were still around, but they are in many states throughout the United States. They still have bookmobiles, especially in rural places. We hear great stories about the kids and the people that come on.
“And yet, we’re getting electronic now in a lot of things; but people love to hold on to, well, a real book and look through it. Kids are wired for electronics, of course, and they’re computer savvy; but it’s just amazing they’re all I’ll never be. But that’s okay! My kids get me through that; and their kids get me through that, too. They still love books. They still love to hold these books and get animal books, and sports books, and the doll books, and all just the coolest books ever in there. They’re just as varied in what they like as they can be; and you never know what kind they like until they ask you. I don’t know until they bring it up and check it out. I may be mildly surprised, but not really, because there’s so many books: 4,000 in this Bookmobile and 2,000 kids can choose from.
“They take a lot of information books. You’d think that there’d be more ‘young adventure’ for the kids to check out. They just love to dig into the information to find out how things work.
“I’ve seen kids through all of these 11 years, and they go all through kindergarten through 12th-grade, you know? It’s pretty amazing if I don’t see them for a couple of years when they’re away in high school, and you see how much they change. But, not personalities, just looks. Personality, but they’re still the same kids that they were. They’re crazy and they’re good, and they’re cool. They are also just as sweet as ever can be! Because I have three daughters, and I’ve worked with young women a lot, I start calling them ‘Listen, sweetie,’ and all that. I’ve finally decided that I’d better quit doing that, or somebody’s going to ... but that’s how they all are. They’re sweeties, you know, they’re just awesome!
“My wife was a librarian for the first years I did this, so I have great love for librarians and books. I have more than an appreciation as I ever did as a truck-driver when I read some books. I listened to a lot of books. Now I don’t even listen to books, I read books. That’s my passion and my love. So, we don’t watch much television, we just read a lot.
