Of course, during our drive, we also took in the seemingly endless amount of construction that has been undertaken throughout the area. We are, quite frankly, stunned not only at the number but also the size of the projects. We cannot imagine the amount of square feet some of these new homes must have. Of course, we also can’t imagine having to heat them either. It quite boggles the mind. At a time when we wish we sometimes had less house with which to deal, it seems that there are any number of people who would like to have more house with which to deal.

We must admit that the one spring thing which we are not particularly taken with is the often violent and unpredictable weather. We did not overly enjoy last week’s hailstorm which arrived with a sharp bang against our kitchen window. In fact, as it progressed we were very glad that we were in the house and the car was in the garage. By the time the hail ended, Pioneer Street was absolutely white with the mothball sized hailstones. Fortunately, they disappeared quickly as did the large puddles resulting from the ensuing downpour.

We were not particularly surprised by the fact that many people described the hailstones as being mothball size. Of course, we did discover that that analogy only worked with people who were conversant with mothballs. Those who had, in all likelihood, never encountered a mothball described the hail as being the size of peanut M&Ms, an analogy which did not seem to work quite so well for us. However, we put that down to the fact that color wise the hail had much more in common with mothballs than with M&Ms. At least we have never encountered white M&Ms although we may well be behind the times on that as we seem to be on so many other things.

Of late, we have noticed that almost any conversation in which we have been a part eventually turns to thoughts about the summer’s upcoming baseball induction weekend. People who live out of the village gleefully point out that they will be safely out of the hubbub and so they are not particularly concerned. Residents within the village tend to articulate fear that they will be steamrolled by the festivities. We actually have no idea what will actually happen. But some of the plans, especially for induction Sunday, appear to be fraught with difficulties that may cause some serious headaches for visitors to the celebration, not the least of which are some ideas regarding parking.

If we understand it correctly, there will be large parking area somewhere around Fly Creek from which the visitors will be bused into the village. When we asked someone who seems to be in the know about such things, how on earth the buses would get from Fly Creek to the Clark Sports Center, we were informed that visitors would be dropped at the elementary school and then they would walk the rest of the way. We then asked how on earth the buses would get from Fly Creek to the elementary school. We didn’t seem to get an answer to that nor to our musings about how long the wait will be for the visitors to get a bus back to the Fly Creek area parking lot after the induction ceremonies.

While discussing all of this at a recent gathering at the Otesaga Hotel, one gentleman at our table offered what he thought was perhaps a possible alternative to Fly Creek parking. He suggested the lake be frozen so that cars could park on the lake and the visitors could then walk to the ceremonies. We must say we were quite intrigued by the concept of refrigeration units that would freeze the lake, making it suitable for parking in July. When we mentioned we thought that might be a very expensive proposition, it was a short leap to the suggestion that perhaps the induction ceremony should be held in February when the lake might well be frozen naturally thus making the cost of using it for parking much less. We must admit that it was without doubt one of the more amusing, and perhaps less practical, discussions we have had regarding parking for the induction. And at this point we have decided that we need to concentrate our efforts on getting through the festivities attendant to the Hall of Fame game. Once we survive that, we shall, no doubt, turn our attention to the induction ceremonies, hoping against hope that the Hall of Fame, which is, after all, throwing the party, will be able to figure out what to do with the guests’ vehicles.

In closing, we would like to thank Harvey Bantham for bringing yet another website with Cooperstown information on it to our attention.

This one features penny postcards and can be found at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/special/ppcs/ppcs.html. Under the New York section, one can access postcards from Otsego County including the Village of Cooperstown. We must say we think this site paints the area in a much better light than did www.tioletnet.com.

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.