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Someone once told us that the older one gets, the faster time goes. We remember being somewhat dubious about this at the time, but we do think we have become true believers. In fact, given the fact that we are fast approaching the middle of June, we have come to the conclusion that time is flying by so quickly it must mean we are somewhere in the antique age range. We seem to have misplaced the spring and have suddenly, we know not how, been thrust into the summer season.
The seventh annual Upper Pioneer Street Block Party has come and gone. Neighbors gathered the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend to catch up with each other after the long winter and to try to figure out how the street’s many children had grown so much since last fall. And although it was a smaller gathering than usual, given that many people were otherwise engaged, it has nonetheless proven an excellent beginning to the summer season.
As our trusty Eagle Street reporter, Robin Lettis, has pointed out in the past, the Upper Pioneer Street Block Party starts the season and the Eagle Street Block Party ends it. To our knowledge, these are the only two block parties held on a regular basis in the village. However, if we are wrong about this and we have somehow missed other block parties, we most certainly would like to be updated on them.
We note that the next meeting of the Literary Discussion Group, sponsored by the Women’s Club of Cooperstown, will be held on Thursday, June 24 at 2:30 p.m. at the home of Pat Duncan.
The book for discussion will be ``The Help’’ by Kathryn Stockett. For more information, including directions to the meeting, please contact Pat at 607-264-3258. Not long ago we received an e-mail from former area resident, Bob Hart, who wrote to let us know that the book ``Hart’s Original Petpourri Vol. 1 Miscellany, Fact, Fancy, Trivia, and Whimsy about Pets, Veterinarians, and Owners,’’ has been listed as a finalist in the INDIE awards for the independently published book competition for 2010.
Our congratulations go out to both of the Harts, Bob and Ronnie, for their success with the book.
We recently journeyed to Troy, New York to attend a birthday bash for Shelley Eckler Davison who celebrated one of those annoying big birthdays this year. But we hasten to point out that Shelley, who is the daughter of Alice and Harvey Eckler of Fly Creek, does not in any way look her age. In fact, she could, without much trouble, pass for the age we claim to be, namely 29. Of course, she is not nearly as far removed from 29 as we are.
And we must say, her good friend Michael Sullivan, who was responsible for the festivities, does know how to throw a great birthday party.
We were treated not only to a lunch of hamburgers, hot dogs and sausages with peppers and onions plus chips, deviled eggs and fruit salad, but also to a full chicken dinner later in the day. It was definitely a total blowout in the food department. We were in heaven. Unfortunately, we had to miss the cutting and devouring of the cake as our 29-year-old eyes are not big on driving after dark.
However, we did get a sneak preview of the cake which looked absolutely yummy. All in all it was a great day. And we can but hope that, since we are reasonably certain that Shelley has a birthday each and every year, it will be repeated sometime in the future.
One of the nice things, we think, about the late spring/ early summer season is that it gives us the opportunity to partake of places, such as Pop’s Place, before the tourist season is really up and running.
As we do each year, we have thus far made several trips to Pop’s Place where we greatly enjoy either the shrimp basket or the barbeque pork sandwich. And we have also partaken of our beginning of the season sundae, something which we, given our great restraint, do not do each and every time we visit. And we will, no doubt, continue to slip in visits to Pop’s Place at times when we think there might be a lull in the volume of business we know they tend to do.
And this year, before things were in full swing, we also dined at the new Polar Scoops, where we enjoyed the sub combo. We would recommend their chicken salad sub as well as their red potato salad.
We were also most interested to discover that they used cold drink cups which are made from corn and are biodegradable. In fact, we brought one such cup home and plan to plant it in the compost pile in order to monitor its rate of decomposition.
We also understand that their silverware is made from cane sugar stalks. We assume they are also biodegradable although we are not certain about it. Throughout the months ahead, we hope to be able to support Polar Scoops as we continue to support Pop’s Place. After all, we tend to like to eat each and every day although we tend not to like to have to fix the food, particularly during the summer months.
In closing, we are always on the search for thoughts about time whether it is flying by or weighing heavily on our hands. To that end we quote C.S. Lewis who said: ``The Future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.’’ Of course, according to Zall’s Second Law, ``How long a minute is, depends on which side of the bathroom door you’re on.’’
And it was Denis Waitely, author and motivational speaker, who said: ``Time is an equal opportunity employer.
Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.’’
Thus we suggest that tomorrow’s time be used to its best advantage, lest it simply fly by.
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: Time flies by
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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
