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Once again this year we had the pleasure of watching the Fourth of July fireworks from the peace and comfort of Grace Welsh’s front porch, which is located just past the Clark Sports Center towards Bowerstown. Needless to say, many people question our judgment as to our choice of location from which to view the fireworks.
However, we have joined Grace on her front porch for what is probably upwards of 15 years and always find it to be a most enjoyable undertaking. Of course, since we started joining Grace for the fireworks, a number of trees have, not surprisingly, increased in height thus obscuring more of the fireworks display.
And this year, we also had to deal with the fact that, for whatever reason, Grace’s flower boxes have really gone to town, reaching heights which also made watching the fireworks a challenge. And while we have little hope of anyone being willing to top a number of trees to improve our view of the fireworks, we are hopeful that the flower boxes will not be quite so industrious next year.
However, in spite of the view, we nonetheless had a most enjoyable time and thank Grace for sharing her front porch with us.
Many years ago now, there was a little sub shop located on the west side of Otsego Lake. And one day when we, that would be both the he-we and the she-we, were out walking on Chestnut Street in front of the Cooper Inn, we were asked by passing motorists if we knew where that sub shop was. The he-we proceeded to explain that they should turn left on Lake Street and continue on that road until they came to Stiles Motel and the sub shop was across from the motel on the lake side of the road.
As they went merrily on their way, we told the he-we that they would never find the place using his directions. When he rather indignantly asked why not, we pointed out that while he might call the motel in question Stiles Motel that was not the name of the place.
Granted, at one time back in his youth it was owned by the Stiles family, but the motel was, and still is, actually called the Lake View Motel. It all comes under the category of never asking a native for directions because such directions will include something like turning at the pink house, which unfortunately hasn’t been pink for last twenty years.
Of course, we now have a very similar situation on our hands now. It is once again possible to purchase subs on the West Lake Road, a.k.a. Route 80, at the newly opened Mt. Wellington Market. And where might the Mt. Wellington Market be? We would tell you it is right across from the Deer Run Motel. Never mind that the Deer Run Motel is no longer the Deer Run Motel and if you plan on finding the Mt. Wellington Market by locating the Deer Run Motel first, your chances of doing so will be nil. Nor will it help you to be told that the Mt. Wellington Market is just past Beaver Cross as Beaver Cross is also no longer there.
Therefore, if you wish to enjoy a delightful lunch on the porch of the Mt. Wellington Market, we suggest you look for their sign, which will be on the left not long after passing the Otsego golf course, which is just across from where Beaver Cross used to be and just south of the former Deer Run Motel. And we would further add that the Mt. Wellington Market is not where TJ's used to be in Springfield Center.
We recently had the opportunity to lunch at the Mt. Wellington Market, and we found the experience much to our liking. Not only was the food very good, but the setting was perfect, far removed from the hustle and bustle of Cooperstown.
Plus, and this is a big plus, there is ample parking, the market is handicapped accessible and the owners are very pleasant.
All in all, we have added it to our growing list of places to eat. The market is open 7 a.m.
to 7 p.m. weekdays and 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. weekends. Because our spring vacation was somewhat more prolonged than we had anticipated, we found ourselves having to cancel a six-month check-up with our dentist. The appointment was rescheduled for last week which gave us great pause as the parking on Main Street is somewhat more doable the middle of May instead of the end of June. And while we had several offers of a ride to our appointment, we were stubborn enough to want to figure out how to get there on our own.
We knew if we could park close enough we would be able to simply use our cane. But, if we had to park further away, we would need to use our walker, the Red Rocket.
And that would present a problem as there is no place to park the Red Rocket at the dentist’s unless we wished to lug it up what we refer to as the stairway to heaven. And since we were not at all desirous of doing that, we hit upon the idea of asking Ellsworth and Sill if we might park the Red Rocket there while visiting the dentist upstairs.
Needless to say, Marti Jex, who owns the store along with her husband Ron, readily agree to help us out. And while talking with her, we discussed the need for walker racks, not to mention bicycle racks, on Main Street. However, we are not terribly optimistic about getting walker racks since the request for bicycle racks has been around for years.
Nonetheless, we do believe the time has come to review the issues facing those of us with physical disabilities who struggle to access Main Street. It certainly is not a new issue. Yet it is one which we think definitely could use a bit of attention.
And we think we would like to start with the Village Library Building which offers able-bodied vehicles the options of fifteen-minute parking, two-hour parking and all day parking while offering the handicapped vehicles the option of one thirty minute parking space. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to attack the issue, please let us know.
In closing, our quote of the week from Plato, ``Necessity, who is the mother of invention,’’ goes rather nicely we think with the old saying ``Where there’s a will, there’s a way.’’ And come fall, we fully intend to use both of them in our quest to improve accessibility to Main Street for those for those of us with mobility issues.
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 email at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com.
