It is with sadness that we note the passing of Tom Harris. Those of us long-time residents of Upper Pioneer Street claim Tom as one of our own as he spent a great part of his youth as a resident of the street. In fact we knew Tommy before we actually moved back to Cooperstown as he would come over and play with Christopher when we were visiting during the summer. But we perhaps remember Tom most for his absolute dedication to the football program at CCS where he served as manager of the team. And even after he graduated he would attend the football game, cheering the team on.
In fact, one our most touching, as well as most wrenching, CCS football moments followed a game in Waterville which, had CCS won, would have broken a very long, and ultimately record setting, losing streak. Alas it was not to be. Our heart broke for the players as well as for Tom, who was so visibly upset by yet another loss. At the time itwas most difficult to think of the loss as another character building moment. And yet, if Tom was any example, build character it did. We shall miss him. To his family, especially his mother Barbara, and to his friends we extend our deepest sympathy.
We note that the Cooperstown High School Class of 1936 recently held its annual reunion at Jerry’s Place. Three members of the class attended, Homer Osterhoudt of Cooperstown, Frances Foster Smith of West Winfield, and Rodney Ingalls also of Cooperstown.
The members were joined in the celebration by Rodney’s wife, Betty. Our congratulations go to the class on their 76th reunion.
We heard not long ago through the grapevine that there have been several incidents at the elementary school where students have been told that the lunches that the parents had packed and sent to school with their children were deemed to be inappropriate by the powers that be at the school. This is most definitely one of those stories that, when we hear it, we hope it is not true, but is actually a result of some sort of misunderstanding. To think that it might actually be happening is, we think, rather distasteful. And we cannot imagine what the reaction of the parents must be.
And, we must admit that had there been such food police when our son Christopher was in elementary school, we would have been one of those parents sending our child to school with an inappropriate lunch. Each day we dutifully packed into his Incredible Hulk lunch box a thermos of Tang, two slices of white, as in Wonder, bread held together with Miracle Whip, two slices of American processed cheese still individually wrapped in plastic, an apple and two Double Stuff Oreos. We would not have had a prayer.
However, had the lunch been questioned, we are reasonably certain we would have arrived at the school in a less than calm mood, announcing in no uncertain terms that school personnel were to keep their mitts off my child’s lunch. But, with age comes wisdom and we think at this point in our lives, we would have take a somewhat different approach. Instead of sending the child to school with his lunch, we would now arrive at school at the appointed lunch hour with the aforementioned packed lunch, take said child out of school and let him eat his lunch in peace in the car after which we would take him back to school.
We are of the opinion that after about a week of this, the school would get the message that we feel that it is the parent who is charged with the responsibility of deciding what the child can and cannot eat for lunch. We were of that opinion then. And we are of that opinion now. If the school is truly concerned about any lunches coming from home, it should contact the parents directly and not expect the student to bring such a message home.
And finally, we willingly admit we were not, and still are not, looking forward to the 2012 election season.
Every issue seems so divisive with little attempt to reach consensus on anything.
Therefore, we found a recent get together to meet Jim Blake, who is mounting a run for the NYS senate seat in the 51st district, to be most refreshing.
We were definitely intrigued by the wide array of issues brought up by those in attendance, including jobs, economic growth with the need to grow local economies in the areas of energy and agriculture, business development, government regulation, education reform, parental rights, gun control, energy costs, property taxes, school mergers, the cost of government, term limits and, of course, natural gas.
We were heartened to realize that it is possible for a group of people to get together and discuss issues in a rational fashion even when there was not agreement on those issues. We found it was possible to have a lively, and civil, discussion.
And we thought this to be most encouraging. It is indeed something we hope is present in other discussions we might encounter on the issues of the day.
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
In These Otsego Hills
July 3, 2012
In These Otsego Hills: This and that ...
- In These Otsego Hills
-
- Comments and questions and updates, oh my ... We must say that we tend to think the number of issues floating around recently is somewhat overwhelming. In fact, there are times when we feel we are having trouble keeping track of them all. And so, we thought we might attempt to sort some of them out.
- Once again, hope springs eternal ... We are happy to report that although Mother Nature did her best to thwart the annual Upper Pioneer Street Block Party, she was not successful.
- To park or not to park ... Every so often one's plans go awry. And sometimes it is really rather disappointing. But every so often the opportunity arises to transform the situation into something which works out to be quite all right.
- The week that was ... For a number of years now, we have not been in Cooperstown for the spring season. And we must admit that we had quite forgotten what it is like. But since we decided that travel was not on the docket for this year, we have become reacquainted with the Cooperstown spring. And we must say we rather enjoyed it with the possible exception of occasional uncalled for snow and seemingly frigid temperatures.
- Imagine what might have been ... A while back we got a telephone call from a reader of this column wanting to know why we had not written a column in support of Otsego Manor continuing to be owned and operated by Otsego County. And even though we have followed the debate over this issue in the newspaper, we readily admitted we did not feel we knew enough about the situation to take a stand.
- Time, if not traffic, moves on ... It is with sadness we note the passing of two people who we have known since moving to Cooperstown in 1982.
- The importance of speaking up ... Over the years we have come to understand that, in writing a weekly column, it is not possible to always please everyone. And such was the case with our column that ran at the end of March in which we wrote about our experience as in inpatient following a total hip replacement.
- Easter brought plenty of dinners to attend We are most happy to report that we did very well this year in the "Easter Dinner" category. In fact, we managed to take in two such dinners, the first of which was a family get-together held on Saturday night at the Fly Creek home of Alice and Harvey Eckler.
- For everything there is a season ... It is with sadness that we note the recent death of Grace Welsh.
- Not just the cost of health care matters ... After last week's column regarding billing procedures within the health care industry, we have been asked if we have an opinion regarding the quality of health care regardless of its cost. And while we cannot speak to the overall quality of health care in the country, we can answer the question when it comes to our own experience, most particularly our inpatient experience, with the quality of the health care system locally.
- More In These Otsego Hills Headlines
