We kicked off the Halloween celebrating early this year by taking in the Pumpkin Glow held on Oct. 26 at the Cooperstown Art Association. And, as usual, we greatly enjoyed seeing the various pumpkins. We have decided that pumpkin carving has moved onto a higher plane than is represented by our reusable, electrically lit pumpkin. And, although the weather did not cooperate very well for the Pumpkin Glow, it certainly did for Halloween. In fact, it was almost too hot to put on our somewhat traditional hooded cape.

The count of treat-or-trickers this year stands at 250 because we prepared 250 treats and when they ran out, we closed up shop. Once again we hired atmosphere artists, who are willing to work for food, to bask in the glow of our green porch light which is designed to heighten the overall eerie effect. And it must have really worked. One women spotlighted all of us with her flashlight to show the children the dummies. And, although we may be dummies, we are not the kind that she meant. We were somewhat surprised at the number of trick-or-treaters who asked if the witch, and her husband who was wearing street clothes and a baseball cap, were real. We were also surprised at the number of young trick-or-treaters who thought passing us by was a wonderful idea.

Each year, of course, we enjoy seeing all the creative costumes which come our way. This year we were delighted by the family who were all dressed as Dalmatians and had two dogs in the best Dalmatian costumes we have ever seen. We were also impressed by the neighbor across the street who donned a tuxedo to hand out candy. It almost made up for not having the usual giant man-eating spider, coffin and tombstone decorating the lawn.

And, this year we had several most interesting conversations about various Halloween traditions. Obviously, the most well known tradition is trick-or-treating. But mention has also been made of "Devil's Night," which was big in the Detroit, Mich., area when we lived there, and something called "Corn Night," which we have never heard of. Does anyone have any experience with "Corn Night?" Please let us know.

The Women's Club of Cooperstown will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 2 p.m. The meeting will be held in Christ Church itself as the program for the afternoon will be based on "A Walk Around Christ Church," a tour of the church originally done by the he-we. For this program, the she-we and David Svahn have worked from the he-we's notes to present a program about the church with special attention being given to its rich history and beautiful stained glass windows. Hostesses for the tea which will follow the program are Pat Dornburgh, chair, Barbara Dorsey, Jeanette Hansen, Louise Hulse and Jane Patrick. The meeting is open to members of the club and their guests as well as any community members who are interested in this program. For more information about the meeting, or the Women's Club of Cooperstown, please contact Mary Kuhn at 607-547-6181.

The next meeting of the Literary Discussion Group, sponsored by the Women's Club of Cooperstown, will be held on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 2:30 p.m. at the Village of Cooperstown library. This month's meeting will be on the 3rd instead of the 4th Thursday. For some unknown reason, there were objections to meeting on Thanksgiving. The meeting will undertake the annual process of book selection. Attendees are encouraged to bring ideas for books for 2004. For more information about the meeting, please contact Catherine Lake Ellsworth at 547-8124.

We recently had a most interesting conversation with May-Britt Joyce about Melville Dewey, the founder of the Dewey decimal system for library organization. Evidently she has just read a book about the man and noted that he too was interested, as was Theodore Roosevelt, in "simplified spelling." In fact, he tried to change his name to Melvil Dui. And, although "Melvil" was evidently accepted, "Dui" was not. May-Britt also noted that Dewey was in favor of using the metric system. We conclude that out of three pet projects, simplified spelling, the metric system and the Dewey decimal system, Dewey succeeded with one. We thank May-Britt for sharing this information with us.

In closing, we are always amazed when someone tells us there is nothing to do in the Cooperstown Area. We think nothing could be further from the truth. However, one does need to keep one's ear to the ground as the events fly by with great rapidity. We thought, therefore, it would be helpful if we added a "What to do" section to the column. For example this coming week, it is possible to take in the Cooperstown Concert Series on Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church; the Friends of Football Pancake Breakfast on Nov. 9 from 7:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Fly Creek Fire Hall; the Women's Club of Cooperstown monthly meeting on Nov. 11 at 2:30 p.m. at Christ Church; Food for Thought program on Norman Rockwell on Nov. 12 at noon at NYSHA (reservations required at 607-547-1450); and the Friends of the Village Library meeting on Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cooperstown Village Library. All in all, we think it looks to be a most busy week.

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.