Storm Reyes grew up in migrant farm worker camps outside Tacoma, Washington during the early 1960s. Most of the laborers were, like Storm, Native Americans. They were paid less than one dollar per hour for their work in berry patches and apple orchards throughout the state.

Storm started working as a full-time laborer herself when she was 8 years old. Her family lived without electricity or running water. But at StoryCorps Storm (left) told her son, Jeremy Hagquist (right), about the day something arrived in camp that changed the course of her life.

This interview came from a partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Every year, StoryCorps records with all ten IMLS National Medal winners, including Pierce County Library in Washington State, where Storm and Jeremy recorded.

Watch “The Bookmobile,” Storm’s story told as an animated StoryCorps short.

Originally aired May 30, 2014, on NPR’s Morning Edition.