This week we find ourselves needing to catch up on a number of responses which we have received regarding questions asked in previous columns.

Not long ago, while contemplating the upcoming concert scheduled for Doubleday Field, we wondered about previous musical events on the field including a concert by the New Christy Minstrels. We received an e-mail from former Cooperstonian Kit Mulligan Byrd, who now lives in Texas, who remembers attending the concert. She writes: "I remember as a small kid, more than 30 years ago, going to see the New Christy Minstrels. They had a stage set up either right over the pitcher's mound or the 2nd/3rd base line. It was three levels high I think. They were quite good and my mom [Mary St. John Mulligan] bought the LP that they were selling outside the gate. My dad [R.J. Mulligan] still has it. I remember looking at it several years later to find Kenny Rogers' picture." We thank Kit for writing and sharing her memories about the concert with us.

We also received a phone call from George Starr who well remembers the concert as he was then quite involved with the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce which sponsored the event. He says that all the planning went well, the group arrived as scheduled and the weather cooperated. The only problem was that less than 800 people attended the concert which meant that instead of being the planned fund raiser, the concert proved to be a large financial liability for the chamber. In fact, George told us that in an attempt to recoup the lost revenue, the chamber sponsored professional wrestling matches on Doubleday Field, something we must admit we had not heard about before. During our conversation, George pointed out several times that he hopes the concert planned for this summer fares better than did the New Christy Minstrels concert. We quite agree. And we also hope that the weather cooperates, something which, if we remember correctly, did not happen for two more recent area concerts, one featuring John Denver and the other Randy Travis. We also thank George for sharing his thoughts on the New Christy Minstrel concert.

We also recently asked a question about the Class of 1948 class play. Our crack research librarian has tracked down the answer to this question. In an edition of the Otsego Farmer, she was able to learn that the play was "Ever Since Eve" written by Florence Ryerson and Colin Clements. It was presented on November 20 and 21, 1947. She notes that it did indeed have a policeman in it. And, should anyone wish it, the cast list, as we;; as other information, is available for the asking. Just let us know and we will be happy to pass it on.

And finally, to finish dealing with responses to previous columns, Doug Preston has inquired as to whether or not we got any response on the gas station, garage and auto dealer question? He writes: "Doesn't anybody remember when Al Welch sold Chevrolets on Railroad Avenue, or when Clarence Everson crammed Buicks into his storefront showroom on Main Street just up the hill from Sherry's? And how about the old Dutch colonial style Gulf station at the corner of Elm and Chestnut Streets, torn down in the early 50s and replaced by the building that is now HQ for the AAA?" We have to say that we think the answer to Doug's question is, unfortunately, no. And, of the examples that Doug mentions, the only one that we remember is the reconstructed Gulf Station on the corner of Elm and Chestnut Streets. The others, as well as the original Gulf station, were before our time in Cooperstown. We certainly hope that the lack of answers to our gas station, garage and auto dealer question does not indicate a lack of interest in the history of our fair community. Should anyone have any additional thoughts on this particular question, please let us know.

In closing, we must apologize for a number of errors which we made in last week's "language" column which, unfortunately, were not corrected in one of the papers for which we write. Quite frankly, had not a reader pointed them out to us, we probably would have been in blissful ignorance of our mistakes. However, he wrote: "I always enjoy your column in the paper - when I got a revision to the GPO Style Guide years ago, I could not believe finding a typo in the section on proof reading - I am not sending this to knock your column - I did find some proofreader's misses-" He proceeded to list our failures, which, we must admit, we found to be somewhat amusing and ironic in a column about language and punctuation. We will, nonetheless, attempt to be more correct in future endeavors.

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.