Gone were the school lunches, the CCS reserve fund balance, the proposed Cherry Valley windmills, the distribution of The Cooperstown Crier, truck deliveries on Main Street and the upcoming concert at Doubleday Field to mention just a few. They were replaced by signs at the U-pick blueberry and peach farms, fireworks, drinking bathroom water, the front versus the back of the Lake Michigan cottage and high fructose corn syrup ... good topics all.

While in Michigan we had the opportunity to pick both peaches and blueberries. And while we quite enjoyed picking both, we found the peach picking to be ever so much easier than the blueberry picking, a fact we readily attribute to the size of the fruit. What we found somewhat disconcerting were the signs posted at the two different locations.

The peach farm sign stated "Parents are expected to supervise their children while on the farm," while the blueberry farm sign said quite bluntly "Do not throw the berries." We must admit that we would assume that neither sign would be needed as, in our humble opinion, the two requests are no brainers. But since the signs were very much in evidence, we have to draw the conclusion that not everyone must see it that way. It is seemingly a sorry comment on today's society.

But so was our experience with the fireworks to which the Lakewood Beach Association was treated one Sunday morning at approximately 4:45 a.m. We rather doubt anyone slept through them. We didn't and neither did the wee-we, who was visiting the cottage that particular weekend. In fact, he dashed out of bed and flew down the steps to the beach to inquire when the display would be over as he found it to be extremely rude, not to mention, in all probability, illegal. Not unsurprisingly, he was called a name which we must refrain from using in this column although it is a quite common reference to a certain part of one's anatomy. We are not quite certain why they, who in our estimation, were that part of the anatomy felt that the wee-we should be classified as that part of the anatomy. Perhaps, we think, it was possible that alcohol had something to do with the fireworks display, people's reasoning, or lack thereof.

We must admit that we far better enjoyed our other topics of discussion. Exactly how we got on the subject of bathroom water we are not certain. However, it came out that neither we nor our sister like to drink water from the bathroom sink.

We think it had something to do with our childhood although neither one of us could remember quite what the reasoning was. We just both think that bathroom water is bad to drink, something which was heartily dismissed by the rest of the family. In fact the wee-we assured us that he, in fact, takes his morning pills in the shower. We were stunned. We knew that he used to brush his teeth in the shower, a fact which also stunned us. Somehow drinking the water in the shower seems even worse to us than drinking the water from the bathroom sink.

And, of course, we had our usual discussion about the back versus the front of the cottage. In the Lake family, the front of the cottage has always been the side which faces Lake Michigan and the back of the cottage has always been the side which faces the road. However, that person in attendance with the Ellsworth genes, thinks, given the architecture of the cottage, that it should be the other way around. He is always talking about putting a deck on the back of the cottage which, we hasten to point out, is really the front of the cottage. In fact, we maintain that for any structure located on any body of water the front is always the side towards the water. But, since we have not done any exhaustive research on the subject, we suppose not everyone would agree, just as not everyone agrees with our ban on drinking bathroom water.

We have to think, however, that our most interesting discussion involved high fructose corn syrup, something our sister is definitely opposed to and we have to admit that we are not big on either. As far as we can tell, studies seem to indicate that it has been linked to the rise in obesity in this country as well as the related increase in diabetes.

From our somewhat limited research we have learned that high fructose corn syrup is metabolized differently than other sugars and has a different effect on health. As we understand it, unlike sugar, which is broken down in the digestive tract, high fructose corn syrup goes directly to the liver. And since research has shown that the liver releases enzymes that instruct the body to store fat, fructose may slow fat burning and thus cause weight gain. It is not a pretty picture, especially when one starts to read the ingredients in food products and realizes that high fructose corn syrup can be found almost everywhere. In fact, the real challenge is to try and find something which doesn't contain it. Trust us, it is not easy.

In closing, while in Michigan we had the opportunity to take in what was, in our opinion, a rather disappointing production of "Cabaret" at the Mason Street Warehouse in Saugatuck. While perusing the program, which covered the entire summer season, we discovered that Amanda Ryan Paige nee Morris, a member of the CCS Class of 1994, had appeared at the Mason Street Warehouse from July 14 to July 30 in their production of "The Great American Trailer Park Musical," recreating the role of Pickles which she first played in the original off-Broadway production of the musical. We were most pleased to learn from one of our step-sisters, who had seen that show, that it was fabulous. Obviously the timing of our vacation was off as we suspect we would have far preferred to have seen Amanda's performance in "The Great American Trailer Park" instead of being stuck with "Cabaret."

We remain,

In these Otsego hills,

The Ellsworths

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