Unfortunately, we once again find ourselves stuck in a time warp. When we look at the calendar, we realize that Labor Day is fast approaching. Yet, we seem to be operating under the misconception that it is still early July due in large part to the fact that we spent the almost five weeks from July 15 to August 17 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We feel the summer has sailed by and we, unfortunately, have not kept pace.
But, family events necessitated our being in Grand Rapids and we must say that we were very glad that our younger sister had seen fit to purchase a condo there where we were able to camp out.
And although she has since moved half of her things from Texas, for most of the time that we were there, it had a definite ``make do’’ feel about it. However, we hasten to point out that the condo did sport air conditioning. So we suspect, based on what we were hearing from people on the ground here in Cooperstown, that we were much more comfortable temperature and humidly wise than we would have been here at home.
And while our time in Grand Rapids was definitely not the Cooperstown summer experience, it was not without its interesting moments. While the neighborhood in which our sister’s condo is located is relatively quiet, venturing beyond the confines of that neighborhood had us frequently thinking we were putting life and limb in extreme danger.
To say that the drivers in Michigan are fond of speed would be perhaps an understatement. In fact we were absolutely astonished at the number of vehicles which, in our opinion, ran red lights. It almost seemed that the red light meant ``gun it and get through the intersection’’ instead of ``its time to stop.’’
We think our worst such experience was when we dutifully stopped for a red light at the intersection of Breton and 44th Street only to have someone whiz by us going probably sixty miles an hour right through the red light. And while the vehicles on 44th Street, which at that point had the green light, had started into the intersection, every one of them screeched to a stop, thus avoiding what could have been, from our perspective, a horrific accident.
Of course, that was the same day that we came upon two separate accidents which appeared to at the very least do a great deal of property damage. For neither accident had the police and emergency vehicles had arrived so both times we counted ourselves fortunate that we had not been a bit earlier in our travels.
Therefore, in the article ``Why speed limits are being raised on U.S. 131, I-196 in Grand Rapids’’ by John Tunison which appeared in the ``Grand Rapids Press,’’ we were not surprised to read ``When transportation officials clocked U.S. 131 traffic speeds through the inner city two years ago, they found only 4 percent of drivers obeyed the 55 mph speed limit. Everyone else was cruising along at an average of 70 mph.’’
However, we were surprised to read that ``...as of Tuesday, the Michigan Department of Transportation bumped up the U.S. 131 speed limit to 70 mph, between Ann to 28th streets — a move intended to improve safety.’’
Evidently, the great State of Michigan ``...uses a formula, calling for hikes if 85 percent of drivers are going faster than the posted speed limit.’’’
We did not find that particularly comforting, especially since it was noted that ``The 50 mph advisory limit in the S-curve will remain the same.’’
We are inclined to wish them good luck with that. We consider ourselves fortunate that we will during our visits to Michigan not have to drive on U.S. 131 through the downtown area which includes the famous for accidents Scurve.
And we must say that we hope the concept of setting a speed limit for any road based on what the drivers choose to drive is peculiar to the State of Michigan and will not be in vogue around here anytime soon even if the Michigan ``Police don’t expect any problems with raising the limits.’’
We also discovered while in Grand Rapids that running red lights and speeding were not the only hazards one faced on the roads. The condo in which we were staying was in the midst of what must be one of the larger urban deer populations in the country. It was actually worse than the village deer population here in Cooperstown.
In fact, one evening, as we were taking off to go visit our father at his residence, we discovered a fairly large and fairly dead deer on the lawn of the condo.
As far as we could tell, the deer had run into a passing car, putting a fairly substantial dent in the driver side door. Fortunately the Grand Rapids deer removal unit picked up the deer fairly early the next morning, after it had spent the night not far from our bedroom window.
We do hasten to point out that driving issues were not the only things we encountered while in Michigan.
In fact, we quite enjoyed the ongoing discussion in the paper about the desire on the part of some residents of Grand Rapids to be allowed to raise chickens in their backyards. For what we were able to glean from the various articles, doing so would be in step with the current ``urban food movement.’’
Of course, given the heat and humidity we experienced while in Grand Rapids, we could not help but wonder if ``urbanö chickens would be less odorous than ``rural’’ chickens. Somehow we tend to doubt it.
And we were also quite taken by another article from the ``Grand Rapid Press’’ entitled ``Let fiction be your Michigan vacation guide’’ by Kim Schneider which appeared in the August 1 edition of the paper. It had never occurred to us that, according to the article ``...A novel still can transport you when the place is so vividly recognizable in your surroundings of the moment.’’ And, it seems that the author is not the only person who ``... finds a book set in or around my travel destination a travel packing must. Matt Norcross, owner of McLean and Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey [Michigan] says the same is true for many of his customers.’’ According to Mr. Norcross, ``It allows people to connect to the area in a way they may not be able to just walking around...I think everybody wants to have the feeling of being a local when they go to these places.’’
As we read this article, we began to realize that this particular concept of reading a piece of fiction that deals with one’s planned destination might well have great impact for visitors to our fair village. Might we suggest that those people planning to visit our area pick up a copy of James Fenimore Cooper’s ``The Pioneers’’ to read while vacationing here? After all, if it works in Michigan, why not in New York?
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: We're back from Michigan ...
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From Fly Creek: For help with the smug
I’ve been having much fun lately, friends, writing a short book called “Saints for Special Needs,” completely fictional characters whomight get us thinking about humanity—and ourselves, in particular. Here’s a sample. Let me know your reaction. (Oh, and I have a fine cartoonist to illustrate the book!) [Almost every culture has a place for “the wise fool,” the vacant sort of person who, in fact, has a witty and trenchant view of humanity, and may even see into its future.]
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In These Otsego Hills: Still more from 1986
Early August found us asking the question, “Does anyone know when Edgewater was builtand by whom?” The answer, much of which came from Ralph Birdsall’s history of the village, appeared in the Aug. 13 column as follows:
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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?”
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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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From Fly Creek: For help with the smug
