HOW I CAME TO BE IN COOPERSTOWN ... By Catherine Lake Ellsworth

On a very hot July day in 1971 I, quite unwittingly, married the Village of Cooperstown. Oh, I didn't know right away that that was what I had done. I was under the impression that I had married one Gerald B. Ellsworth, aged 25, a native of Cooperstown, New York and a graduate of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio with a Master's Degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. At least that is what it said on the marriage license. As my father walked me down the aisle of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Ann Arbor, there was no question in my mind as to who the groom was. What I didn't know was that Cooperstown was part of the deal.

I was slightly suspicious when, after our honeymoon in the upper part of the lower peninsula and the lower part of the upper peninsula of Michigan, we motored to Cooperstown where we spent about a month at the family homestead on Pioneer Street before we moved to our first apartment in Boston. I had a job teaching theater arts, costuming and make-up to be exact, at Boston University. My new husband assumed the role of full time house spouse and part time student. I thought, rather foolishly as it turned out, that once we were in Boston, Cooperstown would be behind us.

I actually held that thought until Christmas approached when the discussion of what we would be doing for the holidays began in earnest. I was big on staying in Boston, putting up our own little tree and celebrating with just the two of us. What I didn't know, and have never understood to this day, is that in the Ellsworth family, Christmas only happens in Cooperstown. It simply cannot be celebrated anywhere else. So, for my very first Christmas as a new bride, I traveled to Cooperstown where I discovered, much to my horror, that although the Ellsworths celebrated Christmas in Cooperstown, they, nonetheless, did it all wrong.

My first 23 Christmases taught me that the family gathered for dinner Christmas Eve and then presents were opened, oh so early, on Christmas morning. I simply did not understand the Ellsworth preference of opening presents on Christmas Eve and having the family gather for dinner on Christmas Day. Of course, since I had married Cooperstown, I learned to adapt and have, as a result, celebrated Christmas wrong each and every year since 1971. It is therefore, not surprising that in the next generation of the family, the heir apparent has no idea that he has done Christmas wrong every year of his life. Nor does his wife, who had never celebrated Christmas until her association with the Ellsworth family.

Of course Christmas was only the beginning of my relationship with Cooperstown. I also discovered that it was imperative that three weeks be spent here each and every summer. For goodness knows what reason, the three weeks were always in June. In those days, June in Cooperstown was not noted for its pleasant and sunny weather. In fact, most years the main topic of discussion was whether or not Willow Brook would flood the basement of the bank building. Each year I assumed, based on the weather, that the bank basement flooding was a given. In fact, I thought it might be a good idea to build an ark just in case. I vividly remember the year that my grandmother called to see if we were all right because she had heard that the Susquehanna River was at flood stage. Little did she know that Willow Brook was actually the problem.

And thus it went for the first ten years of married life. Although we lived first Boston and then in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, each Christmas and each June was spent in Cooperstown. During those years, being blissfully innocent, I had no idea what lay ahead in my relationship with Cooperstown.

In the fall of 1981 my mother-in-law, Enid Brady Ellsworth, died very unexpectedly. And, since my husband was an only child, he got, among other things, the family homestead in Cooperstown. What a deal! We would no longer have to limit our time in Cooperstown to Christmas and June. As luck would have it, we could spend all of our time in Cooperstown. Thus in the summer of 1982, I became an official resident of the Village of Cooperstown with all the rights and privileges thereof.

Our son Christopher could become a third generation graduate of Cooperstown Central School. We could shepherd the village's year long 1986 Bicentennial Celebration. We could write the C.C.S. Alumni Newsletter for ten years which, I must admit, gave me the uncanny ability to know who graduated when. We could donate our theatrical talents to Little People's Theater, the C.C.S. Faculty Association, Leatherstocking Theater and various senior class plays. We could become the people the Chamber of Commerce called when they didn't know the answer to whatever question was being asked.

And we could write a newspaper column, beginning in 1984 as "Where Nature Smiles," for The Freeman's Journal and then later spreading to The Cooperstown Crier as "In These Otsego Hills." Only in Cooperstown would I have the opportunity to meet, year after a year, a weekly deadline in which the comings and goings of the community were recorded. But the very best part of all was that, once I moved here, I didn't have to come here for Christmas. I had arrived and was able to stay home for the holidays, even if they were done all wrong.

We remain,

In these Otsego hills,

Where nature smiles,

The Ellsworths

The Ellsworths may be reached by mail at 105 Pioneer Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326, by telephone at 607-547-8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny.rr.com. They look forward to hearing from you.