Photo by Erin Nelson.
Debra McCarley, owner of DeDe’s Book Rack, stands against a bookshelf in front of the back section of her bookstore in downtown Trussville. McCarley’s store was struck by a vehicle last year.
It’s 5:30 p.m., half an hour until DeDe’s Book Rack closes for the evening. However, the owner of the beloved bookstore, Debra McCarley, is rushing about demonstrating the changes she has made to her shop over the previous 12 months.
“I rearranged the books a little bit,” she says as she heads from the counter to a room full of colorful hardbacks from best-selling authors.
It was Aug. 2, 2022, when a motorist accidentally crashed her Jeep through the wall and into the room where McCarley now stands, scattering books and debris throughout the building.
“If you’ve never been in here you would never know it, but there was a big hole here,” McCarley said. “I just had low bookcases here, but when I got back, I decided to turn it around and cover that up, and you can see the books better from the road.”
McCarley said she had just begun some paperwork when the accident occurred around 1 p.m., with the store empty following a busy morning.
“I had just sat down to do my first-of-the-month books while nobody was here when I heard something,” she said. The driver of the Jeep had just turned from Main Street onto Chalkville Road and hit a light post before losing control and eventually crashing into DeDe’s Book Rack. It was the sound of the Jeep hitting the pole that got McCarley’s attention just seconds before impact.
“I looked up and this Jeep is coming through the wall,” she said. “It was the grace of God that nobody was hurt. I really think, if somebody had been in there, they would have really been badly injured.”
“Somebody asked me, ‘Was I scared to death?’ I said, ‘I was really just more sort of shocked,’” McCarley added. “It’s not every day you look up and there’s a Jeep coming through your wall. Thank God, nobody was hurt. That’s the important thing.”
Before the day was over, support from throughout the community — including customers, friends and other independent bookstores — began to pour in. The Trussville Public Library provided space for McCarley to distribute books for students ahead of the 2022-23 school year.
“Everyone was very, very sweet and supportive,” McCarley said. “I got so many texts and calls from customers saying, ‘We’re so sorry,’ ‘What can we do?’ ‘We can’t wait until you’re back.’”
McCarley was allowed to reopen DeDe’s Book Rack following 10 days of cleanup and inspection. However, a giant plane of plywood covered the hole for close to six months until work to repair the damage could begin. In all, more than 400 books were destroyed in the accident.
One year later, McCarley still notices physical evidence around the store of that bizarre day, and, while she is able to see the humor in the situation, she is grateful no one was hurt and that the community had her back on that hot August day.
“It seems in a lot of ways that it was forever ago, but it’s only been a year, but then, at the same time, it seems that it just happened because every day I see things,” she said. “For a while, every day it was like I was finding another pile of dirt somewhere, even though I thought I got it clean. And, I still cringe a little every time I hear someone’s brakes squeak.”
“The community, my customers, everybody was so supportive through all of it,” she added. “That’s part of living in a great small town where people know what’s happening.”
DeDe’s Book Rack is located at 104 S. Chalkville Road, Suite 105, and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
