The Sweetness of Memory, or the Icing on the Cake

Read the published version of Library Director Charlotte Canelli's column in the May 17, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

As my 61st birthday raced past me this year, I was reminded of the occasion of my 8th birthday. That spring, my mother planned a butterfly birthday for me. This special day, as all my birthdays were, included a handmade dress. Colorful butterflies adorned the yellow polished cotton. The dress had a sash that was tied crisply at the back of the waist and its short-sleeves were perfect the California weather in May. That day, I most certainly wore turned-down lace-trimmed socks and my black, patent-leather Mary Janes.

Living in the college town of Berkeley, California was one of my childhood’s treasured experiences. School friends from my local public elementary school were comprised from nationalities across the world. Some were daughters of graduate students or professors. Others had parents who were missionaries and scientists. More were from families like mine with fathers in blue-color jobs and mothers who stayed at home. In short, my friends that year were as varied as the multicolored butterflies on that birthday dress.

In addition to my dress, there were gifts wrapped in butterfly paper, butterfly decorations and an unforgettable homemade birthday cake.

Mothers Across the Ages - by Norma Logan

Norma Logan is the Literacy Coordinator at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read the published version of Norma's column in the May 10, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Mother’s Day is right around the corner with the promise of flowers, warm sunny days and the time to reflect on the state of being that the holiday celebrates.  In reality, motherhood is a rollercoaster ride of joy, fear, hope, anticipation, energy and weariness.   

American society and culture have changed over the years, and life has, in many ways, become more complicated.  However, the basic emotional ties of mothers to their sons and daughter,s I believe, are ageless.

Since my daughter became a mother four years ago, I have watched her and my grandson, remembering some things and not remembering others.  I have been careful about giving her advice except, as always the educator, to tell her that it is never too early to read to him. I look for books that I can recommend to her from the professionals, much like I gravitated to the Dr. Spock books in the 70’s.

  

This adventure took me on a different course than I would have suspected.  At the same time I had been doing some genealogical research that led me to learn more about mothers of our founding fathers, and I saw a very interesting connection between famous men and their relationships with their mothers.

The Raising of a President by Doug Wead begins with Abraham Lincoln’s quote, “God bless my mother, all I am or ever hope to be I owe to her” and continues into chapters about the Roosevelts, the Kennedys and the Bushes.  George H. W. Bush is quoted as saying, “Dad taught us about duty and service.  Mother taught us about dealing with life”.

Especially poignant and interesting is Cokie Roberts’, popular Founding Mothers.  Her introduction states that her interest in historical women was born of family stories and genealogical knowledge, as well.  She writes of mothers who raised our nation like Abigail Adams, Martha Washington, and Deborah Road Franklin and their influence on future generations.

First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents by Bonie Angelo, tells the stories of  Sara Roosevelt, Martha Truman, Ida Eisenhower, Rose Kennedy, Hannah Nixon, Dorothy Ford, Lillian Carter, Virginia Clinton, Nelle Reagan, and Dorothy Bush.   

Apart from historical mothers, a  new book, What a Difference a Mom Makes: The Indelible Imprint a Mom Leaves on her Son’s Life by Dr. Kevin Leman,  is a no nonsense advice book about raising boys to be men in a contemporary world. 

Whether you are a new mom, a seasoned mother with older children looking for advice, or even a history buff, you can find lots of Mom books at the library.  Interestingly, they all echo the importance that a mother’s life and influence has on her son.   As a famous artist once said about his mother, “When I was a child, my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general. If you become a monk you'll end up as the pope.'  Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.”       

                                                                                        

 Happy Mother’s Day!

The Pattern in My Family's Glass

Read the published version of Library Director Charlotte Canelli's column in the May 3, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

When I was a very young child, my mother whisked my brother and me from Massachusetts to a brand-new life on the Northern California coast. About a month later, a moving van deposited our family’s modest trove of clothing, pastimes and treasures into our new home in Berkeley. As a little girl, I was much more absorbed in my own sorely-missed belongings and I hardly noticed my mother unwrapping her own treasures, tucking them into cabinets and closets.

Nevertheless, over the years, I became keenly acquainted with most of these family heirlooms. The Taft Family Revolutionary War sword and the Bruce Family Civil War medals were displayed with much pride. My great-grandmother’s hand-sewn quilt lay in a chest wrapped in tissue. Six antique glass goblets and a matching pitcher sat front and center in a china cabinet, rarely used.

I admit those glasses never impressed me much. They were stout and thick and bore lines up the stems. Stored in a cabinet, the sunlight never emphasized the fine honeycomb pattern that covered their bowls.

The Gifts of Philanthropy

Read the published version of Charlotte Canelli's column in the April 26, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

 Today everything seems to be big business. Music, sports, the film industry, beauty and even education (with its online colleges and professional degrees) are some of today’s big businesses.  And let’s not forget health care, one of the fastest-growing businesses today.

And That's the Way It Is, April 19, 2013

Read the published version of Charlotte Canelli's column in the April 19, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

It was less than four months ago when the tragedy in Newtown left me wordless.  That weekend before Christmas 2012, I idly sat in front of my computers, both in my office and at home. Shocked and saddened,  I contemplated the tragic event at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  Very slowly that day, the column I was writing materialized.  I wrote about Fred Rogers and Rabbi Harold Kushner and listed their books and others that might help readers find their way to understanding this terrible event.  I added that 2013 would be the 20th anniversary of the Random Acts of Kindness movement, and I urged readers to continue spreading compassion across the world on a daily basis.

How to Recognize Spring

Nancy Ling is an Outreach Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read the published version of Nancy Ling's column in the April 12, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Yes, it’s official! Spring is here. The daffodils are peeking out from the soil. The robins are flying in the heavy way that they do. Even the neighbors are lingering longer outside to talk about the Red Sox or the garden they are beginning to plot.

Road Trip to the National Parks

Read the published version of Charlotte Canelli's column in the April 5, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Nearly a half century ago my family of six took one of our rare vacations and traveled for a month across the United States. This was no easy ride from Berkeley, California to Boston and back again … with four children between the ages of 1 and 15 in the car.

Now I simply can’t imagine how my mother packed all of our clothes and toiletries for the journey, let alone stowed away all the suitcases in the trunk. (Remember, though that a 1960s Oldsmobile possessed a giant trunk.) I am further awed that my mother and step-father organized the trip without the Internet. Nevertheless, AAA was amazingly helpful before the inventions of the GPS and the Google map. These were also the days before handheld devices, iPods and portable DVD players. We amused ourselves with transistor radios, books, maps, writing pads and a plethora of tolerance and patience.

Following My Mother's Scent

Read the published version of Charlotte Canelli's column in the March 29, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

In 1960, I was 8 years old I had my first love affair with perfume. An older family friend had an impressive blue bottle of Evening in Paris on her dresser top. I’m not sure if my infatuation was with the lusty shape or the deep cobalt blue of the bottle. When these friends moved away to Paris months later, I was presented with the near-empty bottle. I hoarded that treasure for years.

When I was 12 years old, I walked the half-mile to the neighborhood drugstore and spent my complete month’s allowance on a bottle of the year’s popular cologne. It was an excessive but poignant Christmas present for my mother and I purchased it weeks in advance, painstakingly carrying it home and leaving it wrapped and unattended on a bookshelf. I impatiently anticipated the holiday.

Children's Bibliotherapy

Jean Todesca is a children's librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her column in the March 22, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

“Do you have any Children’s books about death?”  This is one of the many challenging questions Children’s librarians are faced with.  Bibliotherapy also known as Reading Therapy is the use of books to help guide children through life’s difficult experiences.  Bibliotherapy is designed to provide information and insight, stimulate discussion and offer realistic solutions to problems.  Children learn that there are other people who share similar problems.

After Breaking Bad

Read the published version of Charlotte Canelli's column in the March 15, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

I’ve written before that I don’t watch much television. I’m afraid it has something to do with my attention span. If something doesn’t grab me within the first ten minutes, I lose interest and have trouble trying it again.

I have what I might define as a distinctive taste in movies with a penchant for the quirky romance or a dark comedic drama. One of my favorite movies is Lars and the Real Girl starring Ryan Gosling (2007) and another is Very Bad Things with Cameron Diaz and Christian Slater (1998.) If you know those films, you’ll get my strange viewing habits.

Sweet on Syrup

Read Charlotte Canelli's column in the March 8, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

At the first signs of the spring thaw, sometimes as early as late February, the maple sap harvesting begins. Buckets and tubing begin to show up along muddy back road. March is the month when maple sugar festivals occur across the country in states like Oregon, Michigan and Massachusetts. It’s during this time that we hope we’re in for another sweet year.

Days must be warm and nights drop to freezing or below in order for the sap to flow. Most people know that it takes a lot of juice to make maple syrup – somewhere between 35-40 gallons of sap for one gallon of syrup. What might not be so well-known is that it takes about as many years (35-40) for a maple tree to be mature enough to be tapped.

One March Sunday over a decade ago I went with a friend on a quest. We were rambling across northern Vermont very early that morning, winding over back roads wet with melting snow and hills dotted with small farms, cows and sheep. We watched as one plume of thick, billowing white smoke followed another on the horizon. We veered off our asphalt trail onto a dirt one leading into the woods. That road narrowed and became rutted and ended when we cut the engine in front of a working sugar house.

On Square With Faulkner

Read Shelby Warner's column in the March 1, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

I went to Oxford, Mississippi to find William Faulkner or, more accurately, the statue erected in his honor by the town fathers to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birthday.

It was a cold and blustery day when I arrived. Flags were flapping and tourists scurried from store to store with upturned collars and hats held firmly on their heads. Most of them would end up at The Square Book Shop knowing they would find a warm welcome and a hot cup of coffee upstairs. I, however, was looking for something else.

I have a deep appreciation for the work of William Faulkner and had come to his home town hoping to better understand his writing and to soak up some of the images he had absorbed on the square. For those of you who are not familiar with Faulkner let me just say that he is one of the pre-eminent southern writers whose stories I had come to love and whose writings still speak to my literary soul.

Food on Wheels

Read Charlotte Canelli's column in the February 22, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

This fall we discovered a great little bakery on the southern Massachusetts coast where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzard’s Bay. The town of Fairhaven shares a harbor with what was once the most-famous whaling-era seaport, New Bedford. The south coast is a hidden gem of Massachusetts that our family is learning more and more about all the time.

The Flour Girls Baking Company just opened shop in Fairhaven, having moved from a start-up in-home bakery in another local town. The website for the bakery and café admits that the Flour Girls (with an s) is a misnomer. The bakery is really only managed by ‘one girl’, Jill Houck, who hails from Vermont. Ms. Houck took up baking for profit, having learned her skills from her parents who loved to bake themselves. One of the delightful things about the Flour Girl’s business is that Houck also owns a The Flour Girls Baking Company sweet truck that travels on demand throughout eastern Massachusetts.

If you haven’t heard, the recent phenomenon of food trucks is sweeping the state of Massachusetts (particularly in Boston) and the entire country from coast to coasts. From early morning through evening residents and visitors of big cities across the country see these mobile kitchens, or food trucks, parked along busy streets, in intersections or parking lots.

Hidden Resources @ the Library

Read Marie Lydon's column in the February 15, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

The New Year saw changes in publishing that made me realize more than ever that the times definitely are changing. Newsweek, a magazine I had subscribed to since college and beyond, ceased publication altogether in December. It had altered a lot in the last few years and definitely slimmed down but I was still sad to see it go. Around the same time that Newsweek made its announcement Morningstar sent notice that after its December issue, it would no longer publish a paper edition of Morningstar Mutual Funds, which the library had been subscribing to for years. So, when a couple came into the library recently and sat down with the investment notebook, they were surprised to learn that it is now available only online as Morningstar Investment Research Center.

We're Sweet on Our Library Volunteers

Read Charlotte Canelli's column in the February 8, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Note: This column was written before the 2nd Annual Volunteer Appreciation Tea. The event was postponed until Valentine's Day, February 14, 2013. All sweets and appreciation will be the same as 'advertised.'

On Friday, February 8 we are celebrating our volunteers at the Morrill Memorial Library. We’ve invited them to the 2nd Annual Volunteer Appreciation Tea where they will spend time with us between 10 am and 2 pm in the library’s Simoni Room.

Our first annual tea was such a success in 2012. It was also oh, so delicious. Library staff and trustees baked a plethora of sweets. There was a catch to the task, however. The recipe had to be from a cookbook available on our library shelves or through the Minuteman Library Network. Each dessert was featured with the name of the cookbook, the recipe and the baker. Library staff was on hand throughout the day to greet and thank our volunteers personally.

Last year’s desserts included everything from cheesecake to macarons. (Yes, that’s macarons which are different from the traditional macaroons.)