It is with sorrow that we noted the passing of Cooperstown native, Dick Carr. We have known Dick ever since we joined Cooperstown in 1971. And we know of no one who was more concerned about the community and its people. We always enjoyed chatting with Dick in Augur’s. In fact, one of our favorite Cooperstown stories involves Augur’s when Dick owned it.

Not long after we moved back here in 1982 we, the she-we and the wee-we, who was rather wee at that time, were shopping in Augur’s. The wee-we picked out a book which he very much wanted to have and so we took the book to Mrs. Campbell who properly approved of the choice and assured the wee-we that he would enjoy it. She then carefully put the book in a paper bag, gave it to the wee-we and out of the store we went.

We had no sooner set foot outside the store, when the wee-we announced that we had not paid for the book. We explained that Mrs. Campbell had charged the book to us. The wee-we, being a product up until that time of suburban Detroit, took great exception to that as he pointed out we had not produced our credit card and so the book could not have been charged to us. We then had to explain that we had a "house" charge at Augur’s and that we could buy something there and we would later be sent the bill. We hasten to point out that although we had little choice but to explain this to the wee-we, it was, unfortunately for us, but not for Dick, a huge mistake. For years, until Dick finally sold Augur’s, the wee-we, as well as the he-we of course, were faithful users of that "house" account. In fact, it got to the point that we had to screw our courage to the sticking point to even open the Augur’s bill.

We shall miss Dick with his ever friendly hello and bright smile. We extend our sympathy to his family and his many, many friends.

We also missed noting the retirement of Josie Bliss who, for many years now, has shepherded our dining experiences at the Otesaga Hotel. New Year’s Eve was her last day on the job which we must admit left us with very bittersweet feelings. We are, of course, very happy for Josie in that she has chosen to retire. She has worked very hard over the years and is certainly due a bit of rest and relaxation. But, for the past eight years, ever since the he-we died, we have celebrated New Year’s Eve at the Hawkeye Grill under Josie’s ever watchful eye. We always appreciated her warm greeting when we arrived and her "Happy New Year" wish when we left. We shall miss her not being at the hotel, most especially next New Year’s Eve. It will not, we think, be the same.

We also failed to make note, in a timely fashion, of Hugh MacDougall’s presentation of "From William Cooper’s Town to Baseball Town" which is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. in the village meeting room which is downstairs in the Village Library Building. Hugh’s talk on the history of Cooperstown is the first in a series planned throughout the bicentennial year by the Friends of the Village Library, in conjunction with The Freeman’s Journal, to celebrate the village’s history.

And finally, we failed to share a delightful Christmas present gift story which we heard in our comings and goings about town before the holidays. It seems that a relatively recently married couple decided they both wanted to order Christmas gifts for each other from the same catalog. And so they agreed that they would each place his or her own order and that when the orders arrived, they would definitely not look at the order which was not his or hers. We must say that even though the orders had a good chance of arriving in matching boxes, it sounded like a relatively good plan to us as the boxes would be addressed to two different people.

Unfortunately, one day the husband arrived home only to discover a box had arrived from the catalog in question. To his horror, the quilted vest he had ordered for his wife was laying opened in plain sight on the kitchen counter. He charged upstairs, complaining loudly that it was obvious that the "do not open" rule had been compromised. The wife, who we gather was not terribly taken with the accusation, replied that she had no idea what he was talking about. It turned out that the quilted vest on the kitchen counter was what she had ordered for her niece for Christmas. And so went the well laid Christmas gifts plan. Not only did the wife now know what she was to receive for Christmas, but the whole affair, we gather, resulted in a bit of unpleasantness between the couple. Next year, we might suggest, at the very least, trying different catalogs. It might well save a bit of holiday discord.

In closing, we have been mystified by the weather. It was un-holiday like. And now, as of this writing at least, it is un-January like. And frankly, we are unaccustomed to dealing with mud season at this point in the year. We fully understand in January dealing with ice melt being ground into the rug on our front porch. But we are much bemused in January to having to deal with mud being ground into our front porch rug. It seems wrong. In fact, the only good thing we have to say about it is that at least, unlike the ice melt, we don’t have to pay for the mud. It seems to be, even in January, one of life’s little freebies. [an error occurred while processing this directive]