The Christmas of 2009
will go down as the first
Christmas since 1971
that we have not celebrated
the holiday in Cooperstown.
Instead we found ourselves
with the Christopher and
Annie in Mount Vernon, Ohio.
We were, of course, dubious
that Christmas could actually
be celebrated anywhere but
Cooperstown.
Fortunately, we were
proven wrong as Christmas
in Ohio seemed every bit as
good as Christmas in Cooperstown.
Of course, we were not
keen on the concept of traveling
in the winter.
However, we did manage,
thanks to Linda Crampton,
who offered to not only drive
us out to Ohio, but to also go
back to Ohio to drive us back
to Cooperstown. And, in spite
of the somewhat sketchy
weather, we had a great time
both ways.
And while we missed our
usual Christmas Eve celebration
with Alice and Harvey
Eckler and their family as well
as our usual Christmas Day
dinner with Sandy and Al
Bullard and their family, we
found new ways to celebrate.
Christmas Eve, in keeping with
Annie’s family tradition, we
did fondue and on Christmas
Day we partook of dinner with
Peggy and Tom Turgeon and
their family in Gambier, Ohio.
And we enjoyed it all very
much.
We are also happy to note
that we survived the Christmas
Eve fondue without
impaling a palm on a fondue
fork. Both of the others at
the festivities were not so
fortunate. Luckily there was a
goodly supply of spiderman
bandaids available.
We also greatly enjoyed
attending the Dec. 19 baby
shower for Boo, which was
given by Annie’s good friend
and co-worker, Nicole Pagano-
Percy at her home on East
High Street in Mount Vernon,
Ohio.
We were not only able to
touch base with a number of
our friends from the Kenyon
College community, but we
also were afforded the opportunity
to meet new ones.
And, of course, we greatly
enjoyed seeing all of the
various baby goods which are
available these days for new
arrivals.
We feel it is safe to say that
it is certainly some different
than it was 35 years ago.
Additionally, at the shower
we had the chance to meet
Nicole’s two daughters,
Sophia, five-and-a half, and
Lilly, two-and-a-half. Sophia
was perfect as Nicole’s special
helper for the shower. And
Lilly, we discovered, thinks
that our Christopher is just
one big jungle gym.
After the shower, Christopher
was hoisting Lilly up, up,
up in the air and then back
down again only to have
her say ``Do it again,’’ which
he did a number of times.
However, on her last ``Do it
again,’’ he announced he was
pooped.
Lilly immediately pointed
across the room, telling him
the bathroom was over there.
She then, with great urgency,
started pushing him, no small
task for a two-and-a-half-yearold,
toward the bathroom.
He then explained to her that
he meant he was tired, not in
need of a bathroom.
While in Ohio, we had the
chance to see Annie’s parents,
Hal and Judy Higby, who were
also in Ohio for the shower.
We quite enjoyed our visit
with them and look forward
to sharing Boo, who will be a
first grandchild on both sides,
with them.
Unfortunately, due to the
east coast storm which hit the
weekend before Christmas,
Hal did not have the smoothest
trip from Ohio back to
Connecticut.
In fact, he sat in the Columbus
airport for ten hours
waiting for a flight.
And finally, when an
airplane for his flight arrived
from Philadelphia, having sat
on the tarmac for three hours
there, it turned out that the
pilot had timed-out on his flying
hours so it did not appear
that there was a pilot to fly the
plane back to New York. But,
in a stroke of luck, one of the
passengers slated to take the
flight to New York was a pilot
for that particular airline.
He announced that, once he
did the necessary paperwork,
he would be happy to fly the
plane to New York, which is
just what he did, much to the
relief of not only Hal but all
the rest of the passengers on
the flight.
And people wonder why we
don’t like to fly.
And, although we stayed
in Ohio long enough that we
missed our usual New Year’s
Eve festivities at the Hawkeye,
we nonetheless enjoyed the
rest of our visit.
And we left knowing that
when we next visit Ohio, baby
Boo will be there to greet us.
And thus while the festivities
for Christmas of 2009 and the
New Year of 2010 were greatly
changed, we know full well
that the real change is yet to
come.
In closing, we believe it was
John Foster Dulles, Secretary
of State under President
Dwight D. Eisenhower, who
said, ``A capacity to change is
indispensable.
Equally indispensable is the
capacity to hold fast to that
which is good.’’ We hope in
2010 to be able to do both.
COMMENTS REGARDING this column
may be made by mail at 105 Pioneer
Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326, by
telephone at 607-547-8124 or by e-mail
at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com.
Columns
In These Otsego Hills: The times they have changed
- Columns
-
-
In These Otsego Hills: Continuing on from 1986 ...
We continue this week by answering the question we asked if anyone remembers the old Cooperstown National Bank? On May 13, we wrote: “Martha Dickison, Delaware Street, called to tell us about the Cooperstown National Bank where she worked at her first ‘real job’ after her graduation from school.
Continued ... -
Up On Hawthorn Hill: Spring inventions
The second line of Lawrence Durrell’s novel “Justine” reads as follows: “In the midst of winter you can feel the inventions of Spring.” I first read all four novels of his magnificent Alexandria Quartet during the year I traveled from Saigon to Paris after working in Vietnam for a refugee organization for several years.
Continued ... -
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: Continuing on from 1986 ...
