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On the Delivering Books and Goodwill Within minutes of parking in the mountain village of Hurley, N.M. (pop. 1,464), Fred Barraza opens the bookmobile door and welcomes one eager patron after another. “How are you today?” he asks Karin Wade, 71, who boards the bus with two bagtuls of mysteries to swap for new ones. As Barraza and Wade chat about the weather, Shawdail Hestand, 6, steps inside with her grand mother and heads straight for the children’s shelves to load up on books about ants, alligators, ,-T mj S’' v:* I Trisha Clanton browses the children’s section with her granddaughter, Shawdail Hestand, 6. Be On The (over 01 AMERICAN PROFILE! Personalize a mug, photo, apron and more at AmericanProfile.com today. Simply go on-line and you can easily make a memory that will last a lifetime. Just upload a photo, add a message and birthdays, anniversaries and accomplishments will never be the same! 6 by MARTI p ATTOUN Contributing Editor V> I “ . aKH ••If , % ww " ®®mrnm -■' - ' rIBW re£arag3s! l Kl&^ > SStBB|P T. , w totSS*. ' r^9 r " "Mill ; I .!fife TWjf; 1, -- ..; ■ 's^^ ■ ■ BkSi^. "•* £flk& - ■■ Photos N Da.Mudd rabbits and palominos, while Roseanne Griggs searches the nonfiction titles for a book about the Delaware Indians. “I’d like to know as much as 1 can about my people,” Griggs. 59, tells Barraza. No books about the American Indian tribe are on board so Barraza offers to bring them on his next visit or to mail them to Griggs. For 26 years, Barraza has maneuvered the New Mexico State Library bookmobile over steep and twisting mountain roads to deliver books to people in the state's isolated desert towns. Along the route, he parks at post offices, cases, grocery stores. and community and senior centers. He spends two nights a week at motels on the 325- mile route. “The more rural we go, the more books people check out," says Barraza, 52, who lives in Silver City (pop. 10,545) where the bookmobile office is located. Among several thousand patrons who regularly use the bookmobile are ranchers Irving and Lessie Porter ot Weed, who live 65 miles from the near est library in Alamogordo (pop. 35,582). Each month, the Porters fill a box with books to read until Barraza returns. “Fred travels a long way to get here," says Irving, 83. “He’s a dandy guy. He encourages Sarati. 1 u llll r,S - M