Given the potholes, and their proclivity to retain water, any vehicle which is simply going the posted speed limit will create a wave of water which washes wildly over the walkway, drenching any unsuspecting pedestrian who does not have the foresight to leap successfully out of the way. Fortunately, the informed and courteous drivers tend to slow down so as not to drench the innocent walkers. The uninformed, who really should be forgiven for their first offense, and the rude drivers plow ahead creating a wake which would, we suspect, not be allowed on Otsego Lake.

In fact, one poor walker suggested that perhaps a "no wake" zone should be created for Beaver Street. And since we find that a rather interesting concept, we pass it on to the villages fathers and mothers for their consideration. However, until either the wheels of government turn, or the street is repaired, we would like to ask that Beaver Street drivers slow down and give the pedestrians a break.

We note that there will be another book collection on Saturday, April 14. The Friends of the Village Library of Cooperstown will be collecting books, videotapes, CDs, and DVDs from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Village Library. All materials collected will be sold at the Friends of the Library’s annual book sale in July. Proceeds from the book sale are used to fund a speaker program and summer children’s events, as well as the purchase of computers, books and furniture for the library. The two preceding book collections were, we understand, most successful and it is hoped that this one will be also. We believe this will be the last collection day until books are once again accepted just before the sale. Donors who need help in bringing books to the library can contact Lynda Selover at 547-8192.

And while on the topic of books, we hasten to note that the next meeting of the Literary Discussion Group, sponsored by the Women’s Club of Cooperstown, will be held on Thursday, April 26 at 2:30 p.m. at the Village Library. The book for discussion will be "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman. The meeting is open to the public.

We have realized that while we have kept track of media coverage of Cooperstown for years, our efforts have been mostly focused on the print media, namely newspapers and magazines. We now think, given some of the Cooperstown information that we have encountered recently, that we need to expand our focus to include the internet. For example, we recently received an e-mail from our friend Jon Battle who suggested we might want to check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s2K3Oqezho&mode=related&search=, which we did. What we found was described on the website as: "Cooperstown/Lake Otsego, 1920’s submitted by John L" with the accompanying explanation of "From my grandparents’ home movies. Cooperstown and Lake Otsego views, party at the Cooperstown Country Club w/tennis, badminton and croquet, old cars, a biplane seaplane takes off and lands, tour of lake from speedboat with Kingfisher Tower."

We found ourselves fascinated with the entire home movie, and spent much of the time trying to identify all the various locales. And while we did recognize a fair number of places, there were some about which we were clueless. We must say that we are curious about who John L, as well as his grandparents, might be. It would be interesting, we think, to know. So if anyone does know, we would appreciate the information.

We have also discovered that at least one Cooperstonian has his own website, matthewktabor.com (education for the aughts). Matthew, who graduated from CCS in 2000, has taken on the job of talking about education, including thoughts on CCS, by pulling together education articles from around the country. According to the website "Matthew’s background includes work in higher education, executive recruiting, consulting and government. He educates privately and writes out of Cooperstown, New York." Anyone who is interested can check Matthew’s website out at: www.matthewktabor.com. We also hasten to point out that we imagine there are other Cooperstonians with websites which might be of interest to the community. If anyone is aware of any, please let us know.

In closing, we were interested to read about the concept of "pay and display" parking for Doubleday Field which was noted in an article in last week’s paper. In talking about the proposal with a village trustee, we learned that the concept has been observed as being most successful in Lake George. We must say that we find this to be somewhat ironic as we well remember that when we first moved back to Cooperstown in the early 1980’s, it was thought that one of the worse things that could happen to Cooperstown is that it would become another Lake George. And now, some 25 years later, it seems that we now feel that being at least a little bit like Lake George is a good idea. How the times have changed.

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. ۩