Tag Archives:from the library
13
DecWar in December
My 96-year-old father-in-law, Bill, is one of the surviving 496,777 WW II veterans. Although he now sometimes forgets little things, he does remember Pearl Harbor and D-Day vividly. He was not in the military at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, but he had a vital part in D-Day (June 6, 1944), the day when allied forces invaded northern France by means of beach landings in Normandy.
Bill was a Seabee and responsible for the barges that were put up on the beach to form landing causeways. Food, tanks, medical supplies, ammunition, tanks, etc. were delivered for days, weeks and months before the invasion. The Seabees periodically dove for cover as they were targeted by enemy machine and artillery fire. He witnessed the invasion on June 6th when “soldiers were mowed down and losses were high.” He, himself, was treated for shrapnel wounds. The invasion was one of the largest amphibian military assaults in history and required extreme planning. It was the beginning of the end of the war in Europe.
This summer Bill was visiting us from Florida at the same time as my 10-year-old grandson, Kye, had traveled up from Oregon. One day I found Bill on the sofa telling Kye about his wartime experiences. My daughter had the foresight to video tape the conversation, which was more of a monologue with Kye interjecting questions every now and then. What a history lesson for a 10-year-old boy!
For those children or young adults who are not fortunate to have a great-grandfather to tell the eyewitness tale, there are books that will suffice.
Children’s books, “What was Pearl Harbor?” and “What was D-Day?” by Patricia Demuth, present an easy to read narrative with pictures of the actual events. Elementary school children will find these interesting to read. “True Stories of D-Day” by Henry Brook tells true stories of heroism and drama told by men of different nationalities who took part in the invasion. It is a book appropriate for junior high or high school students. The stories are written so that the violence of war is not emphasized.
For adults, the best book I have read about the attack on Pearl Harbor is “All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor’s Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor” by Donald Stratton. It is a powerful memoir of the day Stratton, then a 19-year-old Seaman, was aboard the USS Arizona when the explosives below his battle station ignited during the Japanese air attack. He was burned over two-thirds of his body, but he miraculously survived by hauling himself hand over hand across a rope tied to a neighboring ship.
Stratton begins his story by telling of his modest Nebraskan beginnings during the Great Depression and the lure of the Navy for a steady paycheck and a view of the world. After basic training in September, 1940, he was assigned to the battleship USS Arizona and sailed into Pearl Harbor. His job aboard the ship was to operate the five port-side antiaircraft guns and that was where he found himself at the beginning of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He found the exercise futile since the dive bombers were too low for their guns and the horizontal bombers were too high. He fired aimlessly until they were out of ammunition and a final blast to the ship made him find his way through the smoke and fire to grab a line and haul himself to safety on the neighboring vessel.
Strafford’s keen memory of all that happened leading up to, during, and after the Pearl Harbor attack is extraordinary, especially since he wrote this memoir at the age of 94. Reading it is like viewing a movie as the action unfolds.
Especially interesting are Strafford’s reflections and analyses of the event in a historical context. His views of what went wrong included 4 premises: we lacked foresight, we communicated poorly, we were overconfident and we were not alert. He even explains a parallel between December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001.
A comprehensive reading of D-Day is the book, “Voices of Valor: D-Day, June 6, 1944” by Douglas Brinkley and Ronald J. Drez. This book includes 2 audio CDs with oral histories from D-Day veterans, and many pictures amidst the detailed historical text.
For the United States, World War II lasted almost 4 years. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the D-Day invasion are vastly written about and studied in American History. As with all life changing historical events, we must not forget them.
In Donald Stratton’s words, “The great lesson we too often learn from history is that we are so prone to forget the past. And there is a price we pay for our forgetfulness.” I am sure my father-in-law would agree.
Norma Logan is the Literacy Volunteer Coordinator at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Look for her article in the December 13, 2018 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.
6
DecA Star is Born: One More Look
When Bradley Cooper took over the project as director, he hoped his fresh version of A Star is Born – of rising and descending stars – would be a box office success. Although Clint Eastwood had envisioned American songwriter and singer Beyoncé as the leading lady of the next remake, it was upon listening to pop singer Lady Gaga at a benefit concert that Cooper knew that he had found his star in Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, Lady Gaga’s real name.
The 2018 version of A Star is Born won’t disappoint those who will fall in love with the soundtrack of 17 original songs or music. Viewers won’t be turned away by the close-ups of either character – Jackson Maine (Cooper) or Abby (Lady Gaga.) For those of us who loved any of the A Star is Born versions, this is as good as the first time.
The foundation for all the versions of A Star is Born was laid in 1932 with the film What Price Hollywood, based on a novel by journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns. St. Johns had been detailing Hollywood’s legends for several decades, including the famous meteoric rises and painful, slow descents of its stars. Her exclusive look fuses details of the relationship of two Tinseltown notorieties (silent superstar Colleen Moore and alcoholic producer, John McCormick) and the tragedy of self-destruction of Hollywood producer Tom Forman. (Forman killed himself the night before his next film was set to begin production in November 1926.) Others claim that the film was based on the turbulent relationship of actors Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay, whose marriage slipped apart as Stanwyck’s career rose and Fay’s declined, due in most part to Fay’s alcoholism.
Constance Bennett and Lowell Sherman star in this version, a black-and-white film directed by George Cukor and co-produced by David O. Selznick. Anyone who has seen any version of A Star is Born will acknowledge the story – an aspiring actress meets the man (in this version a director) who can open doors for her. The starlet (Mary Evans) rockets to the top, winning an Academy Award; the drunk (Max Carey) disrupts her acceptance speech, and eventually commits suicide.
Several years after What Price Hollywood was released, producer Selznick approached director Cukor and asked him to direct another version – the story that is now considered the original A Star is Born. Cukor speculated it would be seen as a plagiarized effort and stayed away. (Interestingly, no legal action was ever taken by the studio.)
This 1937 film, A Star is Born, was released in marvelous Technicolor and starred Janet Gaynor and Frederick March. A North Dakota farm girl is convinced by her grandmother to leave for Hollywood and the grandmother funds her dream. Girl meets guy with connections; girl shows talent; girl rises to the top. Guy then self-destructs, and in this version, and every other one, commits suicide.
In 1954, Cukor finally agreed to direct the first remake of the 1937 musical version in which Judy Garland and James Mason starred. Garland was back from a short retirement and was conveniently married to the film’s producer Sidney Luft. Controversy plagued production – Garland was typically difficult – it was just fifteen years before her suicide in 1969. Before its final release, 30 minutes of the film were cut to make it shorter so that more audiences could view it. The actual film was tragically destroyed when it was melted down for its silver content and was forever lost. A director’s cut version available on DVD includes the audio of the cut scenes while the viewer gazes upon unconvincing studio stills.
Garland and many others believed she would undoubtedly win the Academy Award for A Star is Born. The night of the Oscars, Garland was in the hospital having given birth to her son, Joseph Luft, and film crews were at her bedside for her acceptance speech. In the end, Garland lost to Grace Kelly (The Country Girl). The industry was shocked, and Groucho Marx called it the “biggest robbery since Brinks’.”
In her book, A Star is Born: Judy Garland and the Film That Got Away (September 2018), Judy Garland’s sixty-six-year-old daughter Lorna Luft explains that A Star is Born mimics much of the dark side of Garland’s life and the tumult of stardom and Hollywood. Luft describes the tragic loss – of both the film destroyed and of the award that Garland expected. (Although honored for Wizard of Oz, and nominated twice for A Star is Born and the Judgment at Nuremberg, she never won an Oscar.)
Two decades later, another husband-producer cast his wife in A Star is Born – this time a rock musical. In Jon Peter’s film, Streisand is the aspiring singer and Kris Kristofferson as the musician who discovers her. Kristofferson, as John Norman Howard, is just as risky and rowdy as his alcoholic predecessors played by Frederick March and James Mason. Notably, this Esther is just as talented and quirky as Gaynor and Garland. In the 1976 film, Streisand wins a Grammy – not an Oscar – but Johnny still shows up to ruin the night. He, too, eventually kills himself, this time in a risky car accident after traveling through the desert at 160 miles an hour.
Shortly before the 1954 version of A Star is Born begins AND ends, Norman Maine (James Mason) asks to take one more look at the love of his life, Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland.) From Frederick March to Bradley Cooper, “I just want to have one more look at you,” is like a ribbon that weaves through most, if not all, of this famous film story for nearly the past century.
Take one more look at A Star is Born. Copies of each of the past versions of A Star is Born (including What Price Hollywood) are available through the Minuteman Library Network catalog, as well as Lorna Luft’s biographical story of her mother.
Charlotte Canelli is the Director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte’s column in the December 6, 2018 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.
22
NovGiving Thanks to the Library (and My Job)
No doubt, many residents of Norwood and beyond share my appreciation for the library’s variety of programming and services, from Musical Sundays to passport appointments, as well as the availability of bestsellers on their release dates, and our bend-over-backwards staff. It warms my heart to see crowds in the library daily, showing that libraries still thrive, even in the digital age.
My gratitude for these 11 months of employment at MML also extends to the health and well-being that comes from work/life balance, supportive administration, and a relative lack of workplace drama. Clearly no placement is perfect and employees will likely face some conflict in any position at any institution, but hopefully not enough to impact stress and anxiety levels, sleep, or eating patterns. Although many dive into the job market seeking higher pay or career advancement, surely plenty just anticipate feeling “happier” elsewhere. Happy staffers, however, don’t get that way without deliberate efforts of their bosses and colleagues.
As I gained experience in libraries and eventually found myself in supervisory positions, I decided to supplement my degree in Library Science (MLS) with another in Management (MSM). As a lover of learning and self-improvement, this seemed useful for a conflict-avoidant introvert charged with managing a department. Lessons in leadership proved invaluable to my career trajectory. As I reflect on a year of contentment in my new office, I give thanks to Peter Drucker, Jim Collins, Anita Roddick, and other pioneers from whom I gained inspiration.
I owe a debt of gratitude to some whose wisdom truly struck a chord and followed me to Norwood. I read Dale Carnegie’s classic How to Win Friends and Influence People, originally published in 1936. I expected to roll my eyes at outdated advice and the beginnings of an industry of smarmy self-improvement books on how to get ahead in the rat race. On the contrary, I found Carnegie refreshingly gentle and charming. Suggestions such as, “Instead of condemning people, let’s try to understand them,” and, to get the best of an argument, avoid it “as you would avoid rattlesnakes and earthquakes,” remain as timeless as the Golden Rule. As both a leader and a follower I try hard to listen, remain calm, and empathize with others. I know that when fellow workers treat me with such respect it makes my 8 hours a day quite pleasant, and I’d like to do the same.
I must recognize John Kotter, whose writings on change management prove especially useful these days given the breakneck speed of new technological developments. Not just for books anymore, libraries deal in e-books, databases, streaming video and more. We offer instruction and tutoring on “tech” of all kinds. Internally, our software for checking out items, ordering materials, booking appointments, etc. is in constant flux. Getting used to new technology comes with a learning curve. Kotter’s The Heart of Change serves as a useful manual for getting buy-in and communicating effectively to get teams excited about imminent changes, assuring positivity rather than behind-the-scenes grumbling.
The Morrill Memorial Library has a mostly female staff, as is common in the profession overall. Interpersonal harmony on the job stems from sensing others’ frames of reference and spotting pitfalls in communicating with one’s own gender as well as others’. In Pat Heim’s Hardball for Women she describes the risk of female coworkers turning on each other. She calls this the “power dead-even rule.” It refers to an unspoken “pact” that women who work together should retain steady and equal power levels. Everyone gets along fine until one member of the sisterhood advances, and suddenly the others (usually subconsciously) act resentful and undermine her success. Heim also urges men to refrain from criticizing women for being “emotional,” and women to see frankness as practical, not intimidating. Let’s hope that all too common relationship breakdowns never happen, but for now I thank all of the MML “library ladies,” for their support as I got up to speed this year.
My own pleasure-reading led to an unusual recommendation for lessons on leadership and fostering peace in the workplace. Amanda Palmer, iconic musician and crowdfunding pioneer, wrote The Art of Asking, an autobiographical piece subtitled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help.” While “asking” may sound like the opposite of “thanking,” both actually benefit the asker and thanker alike. Asking for help tells your peers, “We’re in this together. I trust you and recognize your talents.” The boss who bears the weight of the world on her shoulders makes “underlings” feel weak, whereas she who asks, empowers. Not only can asking make one’s own load lighter, but rather than burdening others it gives them a chance to shine. They could always say no, but chances are they’ll thank you for it.
Happy Thanksgiving, and thanks again to Norwood, the library, and all of my coworkers.
Lydia Sampson is the Technical Services Dept. Head at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Look for her article in the November 22, 2018 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.
16
NovTalent Search
However, the question I often return to is this: What am I doing with the wee talents that I have? Am I using them to the best of my ability? Do you ever ask yourself the same thing? And how wonderful it is when people share their talents, whether it is here in the library or at a local hospital, school, or homeless shelter. My coworker, Marg, is an example of someone who is always giving of her time and talent. She ventures to the housing facilities in town, teaching crafts like wreath-making and decoupage. My father was the same way, spending more time helping others than finishing his own projects.
If you are like me, you may have a “Bucket List of Talents” – skills you would like to master or perfect before you depart from God’s green earth. When my father passed away this April, my wish list grew longer. I thought about all his talents that were foreign to me. For years before Dad become a Dean at Central Connecticut State University, he had been an Industrial Arts teacher. While he inspired his students with his designs and craft, no one in my immediate family had learned to use the tools on his work bench. He had saws and drills and levels galore, and yet I hadn’t a clue how to handle them. How sad was that?!
For a brief amount of time I considered researching the topic of woodworking at the library. After all, we had book titles from Quick and Easy Woodworking Projects by the Handyman Club of America (2000) to Woodworking Simplified: Foolproof Carpentry Projects for Beginners by David and Jeanie Stiles. Maybe I could learn to craft something. It wasn’t impossible, was it? In middle school I made a candle stick holder on a lathe. Perhaps I could watch a Youtube video or, better yet, take a Woodworking 101 class. The only problem was my heart wasn’t in it. While I marveled at my father’s talents, I didn’t feel an ounce of excitement toward wood unless it was going into the fireplace. I loved my father, but his passion wasn’t going to be my own. Instead my mother and I found a wonderful neighbor who adopted my father’s collection; he knew exactly what to do with each and every tool.
Nevertheless I hoped to follow in Dad’s footsteps in some fashion. It couldn’t be sailing – too expensive. Or model planes – too many parts. Since it was spring, I began to think about gardening. Again, I checked out a few books: Stuff Every Gardener Should Know by Scott Meyer; Improving Your Soil by Keith Reid and Practical Gardening by Jackie Matthews, Richard Bird and Andrew Mikolajski. I also peeked at his Harris Seed catalog. Lo and behold, I found a box of his seeds in his basement that was waiting to be planted (tears)! At least gardening was a talent I had begun under his tutelage. In my backyard, I’d managed to grow a small plot of tomatoes and peppers over the years, enough for salad and soup now and then. Dad’s garden plot had rich soil waiting for someone to start seeding. Turns out, I wasn’t that person.
Surprisingly, my 15-year old daughter, Sarah, was the one who took on this project. She researched which seeds to plant and how to plant them. Working in “Papa’s Garden,” as we called it, was healing for her. It also became a community project. The neighbors brought over seeper hoses and black weed barrier cloth to make the work lighter. In no time the seedlings took root and the garden began to thrive. Sarah even succeeded in growing bundles of eggplant, which had never grown for me. Along one edge she kept my Dad’s rhubarb, while colorful zinnias lined the other end. In between there were peas and beans and zucchini and peppers. Perhaps this talent had skipped a generation, but it was growing nonetheless. I decided to stick with the herbs on my deck and in my kitchen instead. After all I had the Indoor Edible Garden by Zia Allaway to help.
What I’ve come to realize is that there are some talents that may never come my way, as hard as I might try. Woodworking is one of them. And why struggle with a garden when I can sit back and enjoy the fruits of my daughter’s labors? That said, I did discover one of my father’s passions that I can do with gusto. I watched all of the World Series with a sense of pride and an understanding of why it is America’s “greatest pastime.” It seems my talent search ended right where it began, with words, these words: Go Sox! Damage Done!
Nancy Ling is an Outreach Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, MA. Look for her article in the November 15, 2018 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.
9
NovNorwood: A Home Town
I wished there were photographs hidden in far reaches under the eaves of the deep closets, but there were not.
Working as a librarian certainly has its benefits because I knew just where to look to locate a bit of the house’s history and inhabitants. All of this information can be accessed by anyone who visits Norwood’s history collection in the Cushing Reading Room. Both the Annual Town Reports (now digitally available through the Minuteman Library Network catalog) and Norwood Street Lists are there for anyone to use to research.
Included on those history shelves (while under lock and key, the Adult Information Services librarians will be happy to help unlock them) are two volumes – Norwood: A Home Town. They are rich in architectural detail and structural information that was compiled by both the Norwood Historical Commission and the Massachusetts Historical Commission in the last two decades of the 20th Century. Hundreds of Norwood’s homes are listed by street address; pages that begin with Atwood Avenue and end with Winter Street. Most of the historical descriptions of the hundreds of homes were written by researcher Edward Gordon.
Norwood: A Home Town begins with details of the Town of Norwood’s districts and commercial buildings. Norwood Center, or “the hook,” the F. Holland Day House, the Winslow Brothers tannery complex are all described and illustrated. The town’s amazing presses, among them the Norwood Press and the Plimpton Press, are included. Of particular interest to me are the pages devoted to George H. Morrill & Co. Printing Ink Works. It was George Morrill who built Norwood’s library with his own funds, in memory of his daughter. Like Carnegie of the same era, Morrill shared his wealth and handed over the keys to the library to the town in 1898.
Morrill eventually moved his ink company out of Norwood and consolidated with four other ink companies. In 1945 the Geo. H Morrill Company Division of General Printing Ink Corp was renamed Sun Chemical Corporation.
In 2012, when I decided to research my new home on Prospect Street, I went to the Norwood: A Home Town and the Norwood Street Lists. 305 Prospect Street is listed merely as the Samuel Page House, named for its first owner. It was built in either the 1870s or 1880s on land purchased from the Fairbanks family. On a late 19th century map of Norwood (that can be found in the library’s map drawers), everything north of Prospect Street from Winter to Nahatan streets was illustrated as woods or farmland. This was truly the edge of Norwood’s town center just south of Westwood.
In 1989 the home included a barn in the rear which was removed sometime in the late 20th century. The actual date the house was built is unknown; there was a residence there in 1876, and Samuel Page was listed in the town’s Street Listing as residing there in 1880. However, there is a period when he was listed as living at 276 Prospect Street between 1897 and 1900. Whether mistakes were made, or Samuel moved out to rebuild his home after a fire destroyed the original is unknown.
The architectural character of the house, however, was of the 1880s and today might be thought of as hybrid, encompassing the Stick, Victorian and Queen Anne styles. What we might call Gingerbread is a particular characteristic with overlapping multiple-sided shingles and pretty trim. Perhaps Samuel built it over the years, finally inhabiting it with a family in 1900.
From the Town of Norwood’s Street Listings early in the 20th century, Lillian Page is listed as the resident of the house between 1908 and 1922. She is presumably Samuel’s daughter, or perhaps a younger wife. She left the home in 1922.
The 37-year period between 1922 and 1959 saw three families in the home, two of them staying only ten or eleven years each. Twenty-seven-year-old Joseph Youlden and his wife Dorothy, five years younger, might have raised their family there. Children under twenty were not listed in the Street Listings. In 1939 thirty-five-year-old Harry Fraser (a landscape architect) and his wife, Helen moved to Prospect Street from Highland Street – from perhaps a much smaller home that is not listed in the Norwood: A Home Town. In 1949 Raymond and Grace Rafuse, both in their fifties, moved from a house across from the Highland Cemetery on Winter Street. Their two working daughters lived with them, Gladys was born in 1920, and Jean was born in 1925.
It was in 1959 that John Payne moved into the home from Dedham and lived there for 41 years with his wife, Jeannette. For a time, a young nurse named Mary Orphan lived with them. There were several anecdotal stories about the Paynes – there were teenage daughters who had parties there. Jeannette died in 1988, and the home then lost its attentive care. It was in particularly neglected shape when a young hockey-minded couple from the area, Timothy and Anne Lovell, purchased it in 2001. They restored much of its charm and character, added a long brick walkway to the front porch, and renovated the kitchen and baths. They lived there with their four young children until 2012.
We loved living in such a sweet and gentle home in one of Norwood’s lovely neighborhoods and will miss much about the house, particularly its front and side porches. We watched lightning storms travel south as we rocked on our glider on the left front porch, hidden by the azaleas and Boxwood bushes. We admired joggers and dog walkers who took in their exercise every morning and night. From the private side porch off the kitchen, we sipped morning coffee, our feet propped on the white railing.
Approaching cars shown lights in our dining room windows as they turned the corner from Cottage Street heading east towards Dedham. Through open windows, we heard the sirens of Norwood’s most exceptional fire and police departments and listened to the faint sounds of concerts on the Town Common. In the wee morning hours near 4 am, we were sometimes sleepily awakened by the sound of the commuter rail’s train whistle.
Lucky for us, we will commute from our home on the South Coast to our jobs in Norwood, a Town in which we truly feel “at home.” If you want to know more about the houses in Norwood, visit the library’s historical collection in the Cushing Reading Room.
Charlotte Canelli is the Director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte’s column in the November 8, 2018 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.