There are two children
in my house who bear a
striking resemblance to my
daughters. They are adorable,
smart and energetic.
Like my daughters, they
can spend hours drawing
and coloring or watching
DVDs about princesses and
adventures. They even answer
to my daughters’
names.
And yet, I ca’t help but
be suspicious about their
true identity because these
girls have been nice to each
other.
Mornings around Schoolhouse
Farm are always difficult.
There is only one
bonafide morning person in
our home, and that’s Bee.
The rest of us do what we
can — Papa at a determined
pace, me in a fog of
overnight caffeine withdrawal,
and Posey with either
a mischievous clown
face or an outright scowl.
For her part, Bee doesn’t
have much patience with
people who aren’t morning
people.
So I was dreading the
first day of school just a
bit.
In her excitement to
start the new school year,
Bee had planned her ensemble
down to the smallest
detail, and declared the
night before that she was
going to wake up early, get
dressed immediately and
make her own breakfast
``because that is what first
graders do.’’ (Clearly, she
hasn’t met a lot of high
school students.)
Her unmitigated enthusiasm
for school is wonderful,
don’t get me wrong.
And her self-sufficiency is
even more admirable.
But in a house full of
non-morning people, it’s
wise to keep the one morning
person occupied.
I set my own alarm extra
early so I could be on
top of my game. I predicted
that Bee would be up and
ready to board the bus approximately
one hour before
it arrived. That would
give her plenty of time to
get antsy and look for a diversion
to fill her spare
time - something like parroting
her little sister’s conversation
(``Stop copying
me!’’) or reminding her father
and me of some vague
quasi-promise we may or
may not have made three
years ago whose fulfillment
has become urgently and
immediately necessary
(``Remember that time you
said it would be fun to go
back to that museum in
Philadephia? Remember?
Remember when you said
that? When are we going to
do that?’’).
But that’s not how the
morning progressed, and
that’s what makes me so
suspicious.
Bee was sitting calmly
at the kitchen island eating
her breakfast when Posey
woke and, still rubbing her
sleepy eyes, recounted a
dream about Bee and a castle
and a knight who saved
her.
``You tell the best stories,’’
Bee said, in one of the
few spontaneous, genuine
compliments she has ever
given her little sister.
Moments later, Posey
told Bee she was beautiful.
Then Bee helped stir
Posey’s oatmeal and kindly
passed it to her.
Then Posey said, ``Thank
you.’’
Then a sparkly unicorn
flew down from the top of
Panther Mountain and
beckoned us to ride her far
away to a land where eating
chocolate makes you
rich and buying shoes
makes you smart!
Okay, so that last part
didn’t happen, but it is no
less fantastical than what
did transpire.
Having grown up with
only a brother, I have no direct
experience with sisterhood.
I ask a lot of questions
to adults and children
who are old enough to be a
little reflective. The answers
span the full spectrum.
It got easier as we got
older.
It got so much harder
when we were in middle
school and high school.
They’ll probably always
be friends, like my sister
and me.
If their relationship survives
past college, they
might have a chance at beginning
a friendship.
One young friend with
keen analytical skills said
of her relationship with her
younger sister: ``We are
closest friends, but we can
be the worst enemies.’’
I don’t doubt that for a
minute. Girls can have a
rare talent for being hurtful
to other girls, and being
close with someone means
they know all your weaknesses,
and you know
theirs.
The challenge is to teach
your daughters to lift each
other up, cheer each other
up and, when the time arrives,
back each other up.
And if at all possible,
teach one of them to make
coffee.
Elizabeth Trever Buchinger
knows you are, but
what am I? You can connect
with her at www.moremindfulfamily.
wordpress.
org.
Columns
This Wonderful Life: Who are these little girls?
- Columns
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From Fly Creek: Revving up for spring
Time to bring you up to date on Fly Creek’s happy clambering into Spring. First, the eatery scene. “Is Jerry’s open yet?” The answer is, “Oh, yes!” The porches are freshly stained; the lawns a uniform green, and the hop vines are already climbing the posts on the covered side deck. Blue and I went up there to lunch earlier this week, and I celebrated spring with my traditional bacon, onion and Swiss cheese hamburger. We two sat on the deck, enjoying the broad view and some spectacular clouds marching across, up toward Schuyler Lake.
Continued ... -
In These Otsego Hills: More from 1986 ...
This week we continue with the discussion of telephone service from the pre-dial days. On March 12 we noted that: “No one has yet produced a telephone directory from pre-dial days, but Doug Preston of New Hartford recalls that some business (which one?) in the village had the phone number 7.”
Continued ... -
Home Notes: Celebrations abound at the Thanksgiving Home
April was a month of celebrations and much to appreciate. We had a 90th birthday celebration for Wanda Noyes on April 4 including her family and friends. Personal care staff Dee Bouck worked with residents to hand paint Easter eggs for the tree in the activity room.
Continued ... -
In These Otsego Hills: 1986 continues ...
This week we continue our journey through the columns of 1986 with the answer to the question “for whom, according to tradition, was Hannah’s Hill named?”
Continued ... -
Book Notes: Baseball book features local contributors
Baseball is part of the nation’s fabric. Most kids have a memory of the game either from playing Little League, attending a major league contest or meeting a favorite player. In Cooperstown that feeling is magnified since we are the official home of baseball. We get to see firsthand what has made the sport the national pastime.
Continued ... -
From Fly Creek: Ya really wanna know?
SETTING: Fly Creek General Store. CAST: Assorted seated geezers, drinking coffee. [Door opens, enter heavy-set geezer; walking slowly with wide stance, maybe prostatitis.]
Continued ... -
In These Otsego Hills: Returning to 1986 ...
For the past several years now we have undertaken sharing some of the area’s oral history we have collected over the years that we have written this column. Therefore, this year, we would like to go back to 1986 to share that rather unusual year. Those who were here then no doubt remember that it was that year that the village celebrated the bicentennial of its founding.
Continued ... -
From Fly Creek: For reasons unknowable
[Jim’s reached back to 2002 to share one of his favorite columns.] My father was born as the last century began into a river village in tidewater Maryland. He told me once of a man there in his boyhood who, like so many, made a thin living tonging for oysters in the cold months and, in the hot and humid ones, crabbing and raising vegetables.
Continued ... -
In These Otsego Hills: CCS balancing act ... side two
Last week we shared a number of activities in which students at CCS can participate. We thought it was an impressive, if not overwhelming, list. And we are indeed pleased that the young people of our area have these opportunities. However, we think it is also important to keep in mind that these undertakings do have a cost associated with them. They are not free. In fact there are, no doubt, those who would say they do not come cheap.
Continued ... -
From Fly Creek: A graceful crowd
Make of this what you will, friends. I feel I’m really meant to share it with you. Despite good medication for my Parkinsonism, every four or five weeks I can sensethe symptoms building up on me, giving me more than ordinary trouble. Lately it’s been falls, and last week brought a typical one. I’d gone out to get the paper, moving along with penguin steps on the snowcoved ice patches, and usingmy spike-tipped cane the waya climber uses an ice axe. But circumstances overcame me. Parkinson’s wipes out the possibility of multi-tasking.
Continued ... -
In These Otsego Hills: This and that and the other side ...
We note that the CCS Class of 2012 is presenting its senior class play, “Snow White” by Tim Kelly, this week with performances 7:30 p.m Thursday and Friday, March 29 and 30, and at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 31. All performances will be at the Nicolas J. Sterling Auditorium at the Middle/High School.
Continued ... -
In These Otsego Hills: That green thing ...
Of late we have noticed that our email inbox has been much busier than usual. In fact, we find ourselves hard pressed to keep up with all the various messages we receive. As a result we suspect we have not answered some in as timely a fashion as might be thought appropriate.
Continued ... -
From Fly Creek: What you need to know
In their last Sunday’s bulletins, all 84 churches of Otsego County were to have carried announcements of an important meeting; most of them did. But because the announcement is so important, and not just to the churched, here it is again.
Continued ... -
Book Notes: Living the magic of ‘Hoosier’
A lot of people consider “Hoosiers” the best sports film of all time. The 1986 classic follows the exploits of a fictional small town Indiana high school basketball team in 1952 as it attempts to achieve the impossible dream of a state championship. The story is inspired by the true life achievement of the 1954 Milan team, who with an enrollment of only 161 students shocked big city power Muncie Central on a last second shot to win the state title. It’s the kind of sports story that represents something that is hard to grasp unless you live in a small town.
Continued ... -
In These Otsego Hills: The most perfect village... home to heavy industry?
We suspect we would get a whole lot more accomplished if we spent less time thinking, pondering and musing about things. In fact, there is a good possibility we might actually have completed our goal of cleaning the basement if we only focused on the task at hand, instead of trying to figure out the world around us. It almost makes us wonder if it is possible to think too much about things. We certainly hope not because should that be the case, we are in deep trouble.
Continued ... -
Up On Hawthorn Hill: The past in the present
Clichés abound about the value of photographs. Most are probably true at least to a certain extent. What I do know about an image is that it represents something of the past that is not the pastitself. But that is the power of any image. It represents something that once was. The beauty of an image, revisited, is that it functions as a catalystfor reliving in the present a past experience. My own view, one that I thank the Spanish writer Jorge Luis Borges for, is that all we ever can experience is the present.
Continued ... -
Home Notes: Workshops held for Thanksgiving Home residents
We welcomed Linda Keller, Ph.D. of the Bassett Research Institute and Ida Baker of NYCAMH who presented a six-week workshop for residents and staff.
Continued ... -
From Fly Creek: Late-winter hamlet news
Well, at least I’m “guessing” it’s late winter now — in the winter that wasn’t. But, if not snow, I can provide a flurry of Fly Creek news to share with you, scooping Associated Press, Reuter’s, and United Press International, not to mention all local news services except our General Store.
Continued ... -
In These Otsego Hills: Waiting for spring to have sprung ...
Difficult as it to believe, both January and February seem to have flown by and we find ourselves turning the calendar over to the month of March, which we have long thought is one of the more dreary months of the year. Of course, as in the pastthere are signs of spring as reflected by the tapping of the maple trees. For many years, the trees sprouted buckets to capture their all important sap. However, we now know to look for the sap collection lines that are strung from tree to tree.
Continued ... -
Book Notes: Kennedy: a unique individual
It’s been almost 50 years since the Kennedy assassination shocked the nation. Since then much has been written about President John F. Kennedy and whether he would have achieved his destiny (whatever that may have been) if he had lived. It is said he inspired young people in a way that has never been equaled. And there is the notion of Camelot, espoused by his widow Jackie, that there will never be a time of hope and promise like that again.
Continued ...
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From Fly Creek: Revving up for spring
