— Our remembering Jerry in last week’s column has now lead us to muse about our early days of writing a weekly newspaper column.

Of course, when we started out writing back in 1984 the column was a team effort of the he-we, Jerry, and the she-we, Cathe. Bob and Dale Dupont, then owners of the Freeman’s Journal, asked us to undertake writing a weekly column about Cooperstown.

We remember we gave the idea a definite thumbs down. But the he-we had other ideas.

It all began on January 4, 1984 with ``We thought this was an excellent time of year to take a stab at continuing a column which appeared in `The Journal’ for more years than we can remember. In the first place, all those many organizations, that you may from time to time connect us with, tend to take a break for the holidays leaving us with something we are not accustomed to, namely free time.

We had to find something to do. Secondly, the holidays are a good time for finding  all sorts of people going allsorts of places to do all sorts of things. We managed to take note of at least a few of them.

And thirdly, arm twisting, all four of them, on the part of the editor and publisher, works every time. So here we go, where nature smiles.’’

We were off and running, noting the following week on January 11, 1984 that ``We survived the first week! There were no irate calls concerning glaring errors, no nasty words from former English teachers and no announcement of a forthcoming divorce _ yet. And the response of readers with news items overwhelmed us. It seems that there was more coming and going in Cooperstown over Christmas than we thought.’’

We quickly managed to get into a weekly routine for writing the column. As suggestions or thoughts would pop up, the he-we made a list on his WNS legal pad. Then, towards the end of the week, we would decide who would write what. And we discovered early on that there was a great deal of interest on the part of our readers as to exactly who wrote what. And it was not an easy question to answer.

The he-we tried valiantly to deflect the question by announcing it was very personal one, not unlike asking about the most personal matters of someone’s life. Therefore, we were not at all inclined to answer the question. But the question persisted.

Finally on February 8, 1984 we wrote: ``In closing, we feel that we must take time to clear up some basic misconceptions about how we write this column.

It is not true, as David Pratt has suggested, that we sit across the table with pencils drawn. Nor is it true, as Carrie Southworth has suggested, that Cathe really writes the entire column and is generous enough to give credit to Jerry.

Nor, as John Mitchell has suggested, is it true that Jerry is generous enough to let Cathe write the column. Believe it not, we each write every other word.’’

And while we were busily writing every other word to report the comings and goings of Cooperstown, we quickly discovered that we could on occasion slip other items which we found of interest into the column. For example we tackled the issue of doggie deposits on February 22, 1984 when we wrote:

``However, we were dismayed, as usual, to discover that deposits other than snow were not disappearing quite so quickly from our yard. In fact, those large brown piles, which we know for a fact are not anthills, seem to be going nowhere fast.

Therefore, we would like to suggest that now is perhaps the time for all owners of depositors, large and small, to take shovel in hand and do some old fashioned street, sidewalk and lawn cleaning before the #&*&@)&(!! is on the other foot.’’

On March 28, 1984 we continued with the poop issue, along with the issues of pigeons and potholes, when we wrote:

``In closing, we realize that there are many people who only complain about a situation and who never suggest a solution. We do not wish to fall into that category so we offer the following to the village board to use when considering pooches, pigeons and potholes.

As all of us who are required to shovel our lawns periodically can attest, old dog deposits are extremely hard; so hard in fact that one can hardly blast them off the lawn. Therefore, the village should collect such deposits while fresh and fill the potholes with them. This method would allow the village to repair potholes with a long lasting patch material at minimal cost since the material is available all over the village.

Of course, the village streets would then have unsightly brown blotches on them. Horrors! However, if the whitish grey deposits on the pigeon’s favorite Main Street awning are any indication, these deposits could be used over the pothole patches thereby turning the unsightly brown color to concrete grey.

We feel this solution would benefit all concerned and certainly would not be as expensive as other alternatives. We offer this to the board for what it’s worth. We will, of course, continue to entertain any and all thoughts on this and any other related subject.’’

And while the village has to a large degree solved the poop problem by enacting a pooper scooper law and the pigeon dropping were dramatically reduce when pigeons stopped being feed by certain village residents, the potholes, unfortunately some 26 years later, continue to be problematic.

We, of course, have suggested a solution any  number of times, but it has never been received with great enthusiasm. If it were up to us, we would simply let the potholes grow until such time as all the asphalt disappears and the streets return to dirt. Nothing, we think, could be more historic.

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.