How Does Your Garden Grow?

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts.  Read Charlotte's column in the May 29, 2014 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

As a very young child, I played outside in every season (as children of past generations did). In the 50s and 60s, our parents said goodbye to us on a summer day and simply hoped that we would show up for lunch and dinner. This was a childhood in a small city: tennis and swimming lessons, backyard croquet, day camp in the California foothills parks.

Then came my teen years when I developed allergies to grass and tree pollens that made outdoor living virtually impossible for me from spring through summer. I was a miserable, sniffling mess for four months of every year – either in complete misery or groggy from allergy medications (none of the daytime use prescriptions had been invented yet).

The Films We Love, Actually

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts.  Read Charlotte's column in the May 22, 2014 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

The 2003 holiday hit. “Love Actually” is one of my favorite movies.  That explains to a few people that it’s obvious I have no taste in movies. "A few" people include my dearest oldest daughter.  She loathes "Love Actually" and she is not alone.  Critic Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote in Salon (December 2012) that “Love Actually” is “one of cinema’s nastiest, most depression commentaries on love.”  Other reviewers call it the worst Christmas movie of all time.  Ha, what do they know? My youngest daughter and I adore watching it several times each year.

The Hesitant Traveler

Nancy Ling is an Outreach Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read the published version of Nancy Ling's column in the May 15, 2014 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

The world has changed immensely since I took a trip overseas more than a decade ago. My personal world has changed as well. Last time I traveled across “The Pond,” I didn’t have children. Also, my cell phone was the size of a brief case, and maps were things that I folded and unfolded rather than tap and click.

Along the Way: Mothering Daughters

Charlotte Canelli is the library director at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Read Charlotte's column in the May 8, 2014 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. 

            I wasn’t born on Mother’s Day, but every six or seven years, my birthday falls on the holiday. Growing up next door to my best friend (who was born on May 8), we shared a very special week. Mother’s Day fell smack among the six days between our birthdays.

Beyond Dr. Spock

Charlotte Canelli is the library director at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Read Charlotte's column in the May 1, 2014 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Before becoming a professional librarian and library director, I was blessed to have spent nearly twenty-five years raising my three daughters. They were in the midst of their college careers when I finished my master’s degree, after figuring out just what I wanted to be when I grew up.

Now, I watch one of my daughters in that incredible role of motherhood – the job I once had.  I marvel at the ease and care at which my daughter navigates the fresh and sparkling (and treacherous) waters of motherhood.