Last week was not a good week. Cooperstown lost two
of its own. Donald C. Reed, Jr. and Dorothy Elizabeth
Chase.
Both were Cooperstown natives and both graduated
from Cooperstown High School, Dorothy in 1938 and Donny
in 1943. And they both made their own individual contributions
to the community.
We are unable to move through our house without noting
Donnie’s handiwork. Even as we write this, the carpet
at our feet is there because of Donnie. However, when we
remember Donnie, it is not for the carpet with which we
live, but for the radiator that he took off our hands. When
we moved back here in 1982, we had the heating system
redone, replacing the radiators with baseboard heat.
However, many years ago, Jerry’s grandmother had the
radiator taken out of her bedroom, as it produced too
much heat.
It was stored in the basement and, unfortunately, did
not go away when the rest of the radiators did in 1982.
Consequently, when we decided to re-do a part of the
basement for Christopher’s digs, we were forced into disposing
of the radiator.
Twice Doug Gohde lugged it to the landfill. And twice
he brought it back to us as it was not accepted. He was
told it could leach something, we know not what, into the
soil which would then run down Willow Brook and into
the lake. So the radiator then took up residence in the
garage until Donnie arrived one day and asked if we had
a radiator which we wished to get rid of. We showed him
the radiator and he pronounced it to be perfect.
Perfect for what, we asked. And he explained he was
going to use it as an anchor for his buoy to which he tied
up his boat on the lake. So directly into the lake went the
radiator, bypassing both landfill and Willow Brook. And,
as far as we know, it is still resting comfortably at the bottom
of the lake.
And so, although we will certainly miss seeing Donnie
around town, we will always remember, with a smile on
our face, Donnie’s recycling of the Ellsworth radiator.
To Donnie’s family and his many friends, we extend
our sympathy.
We first encountered Dorothy Chase when we married
into the Ellsworth family in the summer of 1971. At that
time she cleaned for our mother-in-law, Enid Ellsworth.
And when Enid died ten years later, Dorothy started
cleaning for us and continued to do so until she broke her
wrist thus ending her cleaning days. However, not being
one to stay idle, Dorothy continued volunteering at the
senior meals nutrition center, at Bassett Healthcare and,
of course, at Christ Episcopal Church. Sometime during
our tenure as treasurer at Christ Church, we started joining
her once a week for lunch at the nutrition center. And
we took her home from the church Friday mornings after
she finished folding and stuffing the Sunday bulletins.
Unfortunately, the time came when we began to realize
that Dorothy needed more care than she was getting
living alone in an apartment here in Cooperstown. We
then helped her move first in October of 2007 to Welcome
Home in Richfield Springs and then again in June of 2008
to Marchand Manor in Sharon Springs. We used to joke
that she was working her way through all the ``Springs’’
in New York State. However, we did tell her that when
she got to Saratoga Springs she was going to be on her
own.
That, of course, never came to pass and we finally
moved her, for the last time in August of this year, to Otsego
Manor.
Throughout all of these moves we were able to still join
Dorothy once a week for lunch, first at the Tally-Ho in
Richfield Springs, then at My Sister’s Place in Sharon
Springs, and finally at Otsego Manor here in Cooperstown.
We always enjoyed our lunches with Dorothy and we
will be eternally grateful for what she taught us about
accepting with good humor those changes in one’s life
that occur as part of the aging process.
She graciously embraced each step of her journey towards
her goal of life everlasting with her Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. She now dwells with the angels and we
are the poorer for it.
In closing, our quote this week comes from The Book of
Job, Chapter 1, Verse 20, which says ``...the LORD gave,
and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of
the LORD.’’ And even though we find it hard to accept, we
do know it is as it was meant to be.
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 e-mail at
cellsworth1@stny.rr.com.
Columns
In These Otsego Hills: Cooperstown loses two of its own
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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.
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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.
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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?”
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.
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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: Continuing on from 1986 ...
