j's scratchpad

Since there’s an old American tradition to give citrus, particularly oranges, for Christmas, I thought I’d share a light-hearted story for you today about my first clementine. And, yes, it’s related to librarianship.

Once upon a time, I realized eating citrus fruit would often upset my stomach, so for years, I ate none. When I lived in the Mad City, I volunteered for a little while at a really cool library affiliated with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). One day, the amazing librarian handed me a small citrus fruit that looked a little like a large tangerine. A clementine! That was my first clementine. I had heard of them before, but had never eaten one. I don’t remember them being available during my childhood. Maybe I was just a little oblivious to the citrus fruit available at the local grocers. I can’t remember if I ate it right there in the library (with her permission, of course) or if I ate it at home. It doesn’t really matter, though. I loved the taste and was astounded not to experience any ill effects. What developed was a terrific love of the fruit.

I learned a lot while volunteering at that library and completed a really fun project–one of my favorites during grad school. I got to tell someone about my work there a few weeks ago. And just the other day, I brought a friend clementines as thanks for helping me learn to square dance. His face lit up when I told him what he was holding were large clementines, not small oranges. His reaction reminded me of the first time I had the fruit.

So, if you’re pondering what to get library volunteers as signs of appreciation, don’t forget that even small treats can be much appreciated.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 25th, 2006 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Librarianship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.