What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

Lydia Sampson is the Assistant Director/Technical Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read her column in the September 26, 2019 issue of the Transcript & Bulletin.

In three days I depart for Ghana, bound for a rural village with no running water or internet access, to work on a construction project for two weeks. I acquired my mosquito net, anti-malaria meds, and a large packet of pre-departure materials. This is how I plan to spend my annual “vacation,” and right now I’m questioning my sanity.

The first time I ever left North America, I ventured to Duran, Ecuador on a high school volunteering trip. My Catholic school had a partnership there and groups visited annually to help out in schools and a soup kitchen, and embed themselves in the local community. In retrospect, we didn’t accomplish much of anything, but the value lay in exposure to the reality of life and hardship in a developing country. As a teenager, it opened my eyes to water and electricity shortages, unsanitary conditions, infant mortality, and other struggles experienced by the warm and welcoming people we met. Perhaps the experience sparked my interest in travel to off-the-beaten-track regions, and service abroad.

The Crochet Craze

Carla Howard is the Senior Circulation Assistant/Marketing and Media Assistant at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Read Carla’s column in the September 19, 2019 issue of the Transcript and Bulletin.

I remember, years ago, watching my mother and aunt crochet the infamous “Ripple Afghan.” My mother’s was a range of dark purple and magenta colors. I was fascinated, watching it unfold.  She would watch her “stories” after finishing her housework for the morning and then crochet. I was about 8 or 9 and was always interested in all things crafty. I had made “Jeannie in a Bottle” using a Palmolive bottle and a miniature doll after having seen one at my neighbor’s house.  I collected my sister’s and brother’s old baby socks to use as “stuffing” for my sock pets, which were more tied than sewed.  Seeing my interest, Mum patiently took some of her scrap yarn and a G hook and taught me how to crochet. I was, as the saying goes, hooked!

We Were Stardust. We Were Golden.

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the September 12, 2019 edition of the Transcript & Bulletin.

          I was a rising high school senior in the summer of 1969. Far away from Bethel, NY, on the coast of California, I never even knew Woodstock was on the horizon. We all read newspapers and magazines and watched the nightly news. So we knew that something momentous happened on a muddy farm 3,000 miles to the east. Something terrifyingly huge, slightly obscene, and wickedly defiant had ignited while I lived my mini-skirted, innocent, bleach-blonded summer among the dry grasses of Northern California.

           Woodstock, like most unexpected events, might not have occurred, had the stars not aligned. Two young guys, 24-year old Michael Lang, and 26-year old Artie Kornfeld had an idea for a Studio-in-the Woods north of New York City. Kornfeld was already a vice-president at Capitol Records, but he and Lang needed financial backing. Enter two other young guys in their mid-twenties, entrepreneurs Joel Rosenman and John Roberts. Roberts was an heir to the Polident/Poli-grip fortune, and Rosenman was Roberts' good friend with a musical background. They had met on a golf course and were apartment mates in New York City. The two described themselves as "young men with unlimited capital."

Here. Now.

Kirstie David is a Literacy and Outreach Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Look for her article in the September 5, 2019 edition of the Transcript and Bulletin.

When you’re in the reading game, you get recommendations for all types about books you just HAVE to read.  Sometimes books are suggested to me because people know that I am interested in a certain subject, genre or author. More often, the people doing the recommending are overwhelmed by how a particular book made them feel and they want to pass along the experience. I have learned to adjust my expectations accordingly. I try to weigh what I know about someone’s personality and reading preferences against my own before racing out to get a copy of the book. This can be problematic, since I work in a library and regularly get recommendations from people I don’t know at all.

A Do-It-Yourself Education

Nicole Guerra-Coon is the Assistant Children’s Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Look for her column in the August 29, 2019 edition of the Transcript and Bulletin.

When I was a kid, reading a book was the surest way to get information on any subject. Television like PBS and the History Channel were informative, but you couldn’t exactly just call up a channel for information on a particular subject you wanted to learn about.  But, as we all know, the internet has removed many of the barriers in self education. You just need the motivation, access and time. 

Today, for instance, I needed to patch a few holes in some drywall. Did I know the first thing about that? Nope. Usually for anything home maintenance related, I call my dad as he knows how to fix just about anything. But today I was feeling guilty that a grown woman was waiting for her dad to come visit just to fix something for her. So I decided I could do it. I know how to adult - I have all of the internet at my fingertips! So I watched a few videos on YouTube, figured out what would work, and went to the hardware store. I got the supplies and I patched those holes!

The Long and Short of It

Kate Tigue is the Head of Youth Services at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her column in the August 22, 2019 edition of the Transcript and Bulletin. 

When I first started in my career as a librarian, I secretly judged people who asked me about the number of pages in a book before they were even curious about its plot. I used my “concern” about dwindling reading habits of America’s youth as a thin disguise for my own smug attitude concerning my love for long, meandering novels. At one time, I could read three or four books simultaneously and couldn’t understand why the length of a book mattered. If a book is interesting and well-written, why would anyone care about the length? I couldn’t fathom a different answer than my own. 

No matter how well-concealed, this is not a good attitude for anyone in a position to recommend books, especially to kids. Age and experience have thankfully intervened to eliminate the uninformed judgements of my youth. The past fourteen years as a youth services professional in public library has taught me all the reasons book length is such an important factor for many readers. Kids definitely judge books by their covers, and by extension, they factor in how difficult a book might be simply by looking at it. While many kids do love massive tomes like J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series or Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson novels, some see a large book and immediately worry they can’t finish it. 

The Ghost Orchid - Mystery of the Swamp

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the August 15,2019 edition of the Transcript & Bulletin.

Seeing the Ghost Orchid was not on the Charlotte Canelli bucket list. I actually don't have an official bucket list, although I've been known to mentally check things off a list-of-sorts. I am hard-pressed to adopt any I-must-do-this-before-I-die obsessions. Spending a night in a Russian monastery was a happy consequence of a purposeful trip to the Soviet Union. Sipping mead in an Irish castle, viewing fields of Texas bluebonnets in the spring, and observing a Santeria ceremony in Cuba were the rewards of other whimsical adventures. My life has been a chaotic mixture of loss, love, joy, and pain, and I've happened upon many serendipitous experiences along the way.

           How I came to trod over a mile into southwestern Florida's Corkscrew Swamp to view the elusive Super-Ghost Orchid is no mystery to me. I simply awoke one sunny and hot July morning in Fort Myers, Florida, and placed it on top of my must-do-today list.

           The Ghost Orchid (or Dendrophylax lindenii in horticultural parlance) is one of the rarest flowers in the world. It is an epiphyte – or a plant that grows on air. The Ghost Orchid and other epiphytes are not parasites, but like bromeliads, mosses, etc., they derive their nutrients from the water, air, and the detritus of their host plants. Ghost Orchids are native to the Everglades of Florida and Cuba – in the moist and warm environments that make their lives possible.

           The Ghost Orchid flowers in an 85-day blooming phase, mainly between June and August. The Ghost Orchid got its name because it is a master at camouflage - it is challenging to make out from its background - the trunk of a tree. Its thin, pale-white petals and curling tendrils form what looks like the hind legs of a frog, and it is also called the white frog orchid.

          When Charles Darwin became fascinated by orchids later in his life, he suggested that a particular pollinator would be found for each specific orchid. In Chasing Ghosts in the Everglades (Forbes Magazine, July 19, 2019), the story is told of a team of three photographers who braved Florida swamps filled with alligator, panthers, snakes and bears. Armed with high-powered cameras, they were on a mission to photograph, at last, the ghost orchid's mysterious pollinator.*

The Sport with No Season

Lydia Sampson is the Assistant Director and Technical Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read her column in the August 8, 2019 issue of the Norwood Transcript & Bulletin.

Photo by Skitterphoto from Pexels

I hesitate to admit it, having lived in the Boston area for my entire life, but I don’t follow the Red Sox. Or the Celtics. Or Bruins. Not even the Patriots. Don’t hate me! I’ve never been much of a jock, and don’t understand the finer points of team sports, but the main reason I neglect these undisputed best teams on the planet involves my commitment to super-fandom of another athletic endeavor – one that consumes so much spectator time and energy that it leaves little opportunity for interest in any other. “My” sport is called mixed martial arts, and it has no season. 

On any given Saturday you’ll find me online making my picks, scouring mixed martial arts (MMA) websites, and solidifying my predictions for the evening’s bouts. 

A Ruddy Good Writer

Librarian April Cushing is head of Adult and Information Services at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her column published in the August 1, 2019 issue of the Norwood Transcript Bulletin.

     “If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs and blaming it on you…” I’d heard these words, of course, but never realized they originated from Rudyard Kipling. “If--” is consistently voted the most popular poem in Britain, and all too frequently quoted, according to its author. Despite being woefully unfamiliar with his other works, I was thrilled to be invited to spend a weekend at Naulakha, the Kiplings’ home in Dummerston, Vermont during their four years in America.

Your Family Tree

Nancy Ling is the Outreach Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts.  Read Nancy’s column in the July 25, 2019 issue of the Transcript and Bulletin.

I grew up with an awkward middle name. Lincoln. It wasn’t exactly the pinnacle of cool and hip. As a young child in the ‘70s when most of my friends had middle names like Ann and Marie and Jean, I was well-aware that Lincoln was not a name to be shared out loud if I could help it. The only folks who knew this secret information were the local bank teller and the pediatrician.

We've Come a Long Way Baby - In Women's Sports

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the July 18, 2019 edition of the Transcript & Bulletin. 

I am, perhaps, one of the most uncoordinated women on earth.  Oh, yes, I had the distinction of managing my seventh-grade softball team, but, in retrospect, I suspect my team gave me the job as a manager because voting me the position of manager kept me from either guarding a base or handling a bat. 

I have somehow accomplished a few sports during my lifetime. I learned to ice skate at the tender age of five on a meandering city park pond in the heart of Worcester. I managed to straighten my buckling ankles and have lovely childhood memories of taking care of my gorgeous pair of lace-up, white skates. I continued to skate for fun after we moved to the West Coast and into my preteens on the public indoor ice close to my neighborhood in Berkeley, CA. The San Francisco Bay Area was also where I learned to swim and play tennis in free summer camps.

I also roller-skated everywhere as a young girl, traveling on expandable metal roller skates with the skates’ key dangling from a piece of ribbon around my neck. Moving to the hilly suburbs, however, put a damper on that activity when, used to flat, city streets, the brakes were applied to my skating when I fell and broke my left arm for the third time.

As a high schooler, I learned to ski in the Sierra Mountains near Lake Tahoe. I continued for years, leading my young daughters down New England slopes. Yet, I soon lost my ski partners when they abandoned me to the double black diamonds on the slopes in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. I bought myself cross-country skis instead. I fell in love with the solitude of whispering pines and quieter, slower trails, but gave it up when falling became too threatening for 60-year old bones.

I had the distinction of earning a high school Varsity letter at the Senior Sports Banquet in June 1970. I received the honor because I had spent the season expertly, and proudly, handling my football statistician’s clipboard, while managing to send beaming smiles to my handsome Varsity team boyfriend.

Coincidentally, in the wake of a star-struck nation obsessed with the Women’s World Cup win, I was suddenly struck by the fact that none of my high school girlfriends had been members of a high school sports team, let alone a soccer team.

Happy Moving Day!

Liz Reed is an Adult and Information Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Liz’s column in the July 11, 2019 issue of the Transcript and Bulletin.

Have you ever had the experience of finding the exact right book at the exact wrong moment? And I don’t mean those times when you’re sure you put the book down somewhere where you knew you definitely wouldn’t forget it, and you know you’ll find it eventually but you’ve looked EVERYWHERE and have given it up for lost, so you finally pay the late fee at the library and get back in your car only to find it under the front seat.

Instead,  I mean those occasions when you don’t even know you should be looking for a book and the universe intervenes to drop into your hands the book that perfectly fits your situation...only about two days after it would have been really useful.

Now You're Playing with Power

Brian DeFelice is the Technology Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood. Read his column in the July 3, 2019 edition of the Transcript & Bulletin.

My parents had just picked me up from my friend’s house that warm September night in 1989. When we got home and walked through the door, my parents told me I should go right to my room. “Huh?” I had thought to myseIf, “I didn't do anything bad (well...this time anyway). However being a six year old, and exhausted from a day of playing with my friend, I didn’t think too much about their request and headed up the staircase to my room.  When I opened the door, both of my brothers were smiling at me, and that's when I saw it...

Caw-Caw-Caw-Caw-Coodle-Yah!

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the June 27, 2019 edition of the Norwood Transcript & Bulletin.

A few years ago, when our eldest granddaughter was mimicking sounds and words, I delighted both of us by teaching her to “caw-caw” like a crow. Being an ardent birder, my husband Gerry taught her to sing “fee-bee” just like an Eastern Phoebe that shares her name. Sitting outdoors in the fresh morning air, we pointed out sequences of Osprey chirps and the sing-song lyrics of an Eastern Towhee (“drink-drink your tea!”)

I’m an amateur birder, absorbing just enough to detect a cardinal flitting over the yard or an eagle’s nest high over the highway. When I had some time recently to listen to an episode of one of my beloved podcasts (Ologies with science-writer Alie Ward), I chose Corvid Thanatology. In –other-words, the study of crow funerals.

The Anti Beach Read

Kate Tigue is the Head of Youth Services at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her column in the June 20, 2019 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. 

Summer is finally here and now is the time of year when every book-related website publishes its own spin on the beloved “beach read”. Many readers start to look for stories that aren’t too weighty or serious but still keep their attention. The plots are usually fast-moving and the ends are often happy.  These books are meant to satisfy and relax but not ruin the good vibes of your vacation.  In theory, this is a wonderful idea. In practice, I’m terrible at finding good beach reads.