As can so easily be the case, our plans for Thanksgiving went awry when wediscovered our health was going to preclude our going to the Thanksgiving Home for dinner. Given the way we felt, we were reasonably certain they would not want us to come and we definitely knew we did not want to go. And thus we missed what was reported to be a most delicious Thanksgiving repast, complete withour most favorite scalloped oysters.
We are indeed sorry to have missed the festivities, but such is life. And besides, we trust there is hope for next year. But, having been dealt lemons this Thanksgiving, we did our best to make lemonade.
For the first time in years we watched Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Of course, as we watched we realized how out of touch we are with the current entertainment scene.
Granted we did recognize some of the performers, like the Rockettes, but we found ourselves clueless about most of them. And while we recognized a number of the balloons, there seemed to be a number that we did not.
Nonetheless we were glad to see the event this year even if it did tend to make us feelcompletely out of touch. Of course, we also attempted to take in the Thanksgiving Day football games, but we must admit that we slept through most of them. No doubt there are those who would have thought that a blessing.
We did, however, manage to drag ourselves to the kitchen to partake of our substitute Thanksgiving dinner, namely a bowl of chicken noodle soup, which we followed later at suppertime withscrambled eggs and toast. All in all, we survived fairly well completing our recuperation by feasting on the various Thanksgiving dinners pictured in the November issue of Cooking Light. We must say they all looked wonderful ,but we were very glad we did not have to partake of any of them.
Of course we also missed the madness of Black Friday and the relative peace of Small Business Saturday as well as Cyber Monday. But we suspect we would have missed all of them even if we hadn’t been under the weather.
Once again this year for Christmas giving, we plan to shop in the attic for the younger set and make a donation to the Cooperstown food bank for the older set. And while we fully intend to givethe older set a donation to the food bank for the foreseeable future, we suspect there will be a time, sooner than later, that the younger set will have definite ideas of what is desired for Christmas, which might not include her father’s 35 year old toys. But until that time arrives we plan the annual shopping trip to the attic.
Having said that we suppose our Christmas giving plan is perhaps not in the best interests of the local economy. Therefore we do hope that others do not adopt our somewhat unconventionalthinking and are thus instead dashing in and out of our many stores, making the cash registers ring in the process.
After all, although we have yet to see it, we have to assume that Main Street is properly decked out for the holiday season, thanks to the hard work of the 4 Cs and the community. We also trust that Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived on schedule and are happily ensconced in their cottage in Pioneer Park, making note of the Christmas wishes of all their visitors. Hopefully the holiday season is in full swing, even if we are not. However, we do need to point out that we have loaded our Christmas CDs into the stereo so that we might enjoy them as we read each morning. Quite frankly, it seemed to be the most we could do at the moment.
What we did not miss in all of this was an e-mail we received from Grace Kull. As many will no doubt remember Grace undertook a fundraising campaign to raise enough money to drill a much needed water well in Africa. The drilling of the well has taken more time than originally expected.
Thus we were indeed thankful that Grace was able to write: “At last I can report to you that the well to which you made a donation in 2009, has been completed. Work on it had been stopped due to a civil war in the area, but apparently that has been resolved and the workers were allowed to go back and finish the project.
The village is Kloko Sakassou in Cote d’Ivoire, which is the Ivory Coast of Africa...There is a plaque on/ near the well which reads: This water project was sponsored by Grace Kull with help from Family and Friends and Cooperstown Elementary School Students 20 9.
I am very excited and pleased to know that we are supplying clean water to these people who have never had access to it before and whose lives will be made so much better because of what we did. Thank you all for your share in this project, without you it could not have happened.”
We congratulate Grace for all the work she has done to supply the village of Kloko Sakassou with water. And we also thank all of those people who helped Grace to make the well possible. It is indeed a community effort of which we can all be most proud.
PLEASE NOTE: Comments regarding this column may be made by mail at 105 Pioneer Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326, by telephone at 607-547-8124 or by
Columns
In These Otsego Hills: Not quite what was expected ...
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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?”
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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.
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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.]
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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From Fly Creek: Revving up for spring
