This year there were two items which we found interesting. Gerald F. Jennings, CCS Class of 1945, noted that there has been a member of the Jennings family in the Cooperstown School system since 1934.

The list of 15 Jennings students includes Richard Jennings, Robert Jennings, Gerald Jennings, Gary Jennings, Jessica Jennings Bryan, Charles Jennings, Adam Jennings, Kerri Jennings, Susan Jennings McCormick, Alice Jennings Tomasi, Arnold Jennings, Douglas Jennings, Ronald Jennings, Teresa Jennings Russo and Michael Jennings. The last of the Jennings at CCS was Kerri, Gerald's granddaughter, who completed, with her graduation last June, the seventy year run of Jennings at the school. So, for the first time since 1934, the school started its year without a member of the Jennings family in attendance.

We also found interesting a comment by an alum who said that he did not attend this year's annual banquet and meeting of the Alumni Association as the stools in the middle/high school cafeteria "are too much for an 83 year old to sit on." We can well understand his displeasure with the stools as we find those same stools, on which the public perches at school board meetings, less than comfortable for our relatively young 56 year old bones. And we can't help but think the situation will not improve for us as we continue to attend school board meetings in years ahead. We are not exactly certain what the solution might be to increase the comfort level for the Alumni Banquet, but we can't help but feel that it is indeed unfortunate that alums do not attend because of difficulties with the seating in the cafeteria.

Following our piece on Cooperstown barns we received a call from former Cooperstonian Jim Rowley who shared with us some of his recollections of various barns.

Growing up he lived on Eagle Street and at that time there was a barn behind one of the houses which was often used by individuals who found themselves without overnight shelter. Jim remembers that, unfortunately, on one night during which the barn was being used for shelter, it caught on fire, killing one of the sleepers. Jim noted that the barn was not rebuilt after that.

Jim also told us that his brother, Robert, who is perhaps best known for the various ranch houses he built in the community, was the person who converted the Stillwater barn on Walnut Street into housing. Jim also remembers the carriage barn that went with what we would call the McKim house, built in 1884 by Dr. Robert McKim of NYC. The house, which is now located on Westridge Drive, is, we believe, a bed and breakfast called Bryn Brooks Manor. At one time, we seem to remember that the carriage barn of which Jim speaks was converted to overnight accommodations, but we have no idea if that is still the case. We thank Jim for his input into our "Barns of Cooperstown" discussion.

Each year we suppose that all the new technology as it creeps into the Ellsworth family life makes communication easier. However, we are not always certain that we think it necessarily makes things simpler. This summer, while on a camping trip in Maine, the wee-we, a.k.a. our son Christopher, called from his cell phone asking us if we might be able to find Stephen King's address in Bangor, Maine on the internet as the wee-we was desirous of seeing King's house. We told the wee-we that we rather doubted it as we could not imagine that Stephen King would actually put his address on the internet. And we found that we were quite correct in our thinking.

However, we did manage to find an article that told us that one could learn the address by visiting a certain bookstore in Bangor. Evidently, according to the article, the Chamber of Commerce in Bangor sends all visitors interested in finding Stephen King's home to this bookstore, which judicially directs tourists who pass the muster to the house in question. We called the wee-we back on his cell phone and relayed all this information to him, complete with instructions on how to find the book store. After a trip to the bookstore, during which the wee-we felt obligated to purchase a book, he got the necessary instructions and was able to drive by King's Bangor home. Ah, the wonders of modern technology in this case we suspect both we and Stephen King could have done quite well without them. But the wee-we did enjoy the experience. And we certainly hope he likes the book as well.

In closing, we know that summer is fast drawing to a close as the Women's Club annual Salad Luncheon will be held next Tuesday, Sept. 14, at 1 p.m. at the Christ Church Parish House. Once the luncheon arrives, the transition from summer to fall is upon us. Nonetheless we are indeed most pleased that summer did finally seem to put in an appearance before it actually came to a close. It is unfortunate, of course, that the seemingly nice weather came so late in the season, just as summer vacations ground to a halt, the new school year started and we had to start thinking about just what salad we might take to the Women's Club luncheon.

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.