The first of these, the annual Friends of the Village Library book sale, will be held on Saturday, June 30 and Sunday, July 1 at 22 Main St. from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. On Saturday, for a $10 fee, there will be an "early bird" special from 8 till 9 a.m. for dealers and others who wish to get an early start on the sale. Hard cover books will be $2 and paperback books will be 50 cents.

There will also be a table of "special" books which will be individually priced. Books will continue to be sold during the Fourth of July week and following weekend, concluding on Sunday, July 8. An "honor system" will be set up for payment during that week.

Also, this year, there will be an opportunity to make a monetary donation to the Friends of the Library during the book sale. Anyone making a donation of $25 or more will receive a "Friends of the Village Library" tote bag. All donations will be used for programs at and improvements to the library.

We note, as with all such events that happen thanks to volunteer labor, that volunteers are still needed to help set up the book sale. Anyone wishing to help should show up at the library on Friday, June 29 at 10 a.m. Even an hour or two of help will be greatly appreciated, making what is an enormous task go in a quicker and smoother manner.

The second event is, of course, the annual Cooperstown Presbyterian Ice Cream Social which will be held on Friday, July 6 from 5 until 8 p.m. on the lawn of the church, or, heaven forbid, indoors in case of rain. Hot dogs with macaroni salad, lemonade, ice cream and homemade cake are on the menu.

Additionally, handmade and second-hand treasure items as well as plants will be offered for sale. Games for children and musical entertainment will also on hand. Tickets for food items are available ahead of time from church members or at the event itself.

This year, the Ice Cream Social will also celebrate the 200th anniversary of the completion of the church building. The church was built on land donated by Judge William Cooper in 1804. It should also be noted that the bicentennial of the completion of the Presbyterian Church coincides with the Village of Cooperstown’s bicentennial of its incorporation. Both have a long, and we think, interesting history. And, although there is no formal history of the Ice Cream Social, there are currently fourth generation attendees at this event which continues each year to bring community members together. Sylvia Summers and Mary Leonard, both of Cooperstown, co-chair this year’s Ice Cream Social. We, of course, plan on attending and trust to see any number of people there.

We recently received an e-mail from Ceetee Sheckels who wrote: "... I was reading the CoopersTown Crier online, used to read your column on a regular basis when I lived in the area ... just thought I’d send an idea to you: I think the Crier & the Oneonta Star need a forum _ a message-board type thingie like many other online newspapers have _ I’m sure many people would use it, including those like me who would like to stay in touch with the locals "back East" ... any chance of whomever is in charge of the papers setting one up? Just a thought!!" We must admit that we have no idea as to whether such an idea might fly, but we have, nonetheless, passed it on to the powers that be. We find it to be an intriguing idea as we always like an opportunity to put our two cents in. Does anyone else have thoughts on this? Please let us know.

We must admit that we were delighted to read in last week’s paper the headline "Time expired for paid parking this year." In our humble opinion, the time for paid parking in Cooperstown could be permanently expired. In fact, we were both amused and bemused by the reported interchange between village trustees and the mayor. Trustee Hage was reported as asking if there was any concern "... about the loss of parking spaces in recent years or if that is the goal of the board." To this, Mayor Waller was quoted as saying, "It is not our goal to eliminate parking downtown. We want to make it resident friendly." To which Trustee Kuhn added, "And paid." We were in complete agreement right up through the "resident friendly." But, we simply do not understand how "resident friendly" and "paid," when it comes to parking, are at all compatible. Of course, we are more than willing to admit that we may be alone in our thinking and so would heartily endorse, as was suggested by the mayor, "... an informational meeting to talk about parking issues with residents and businesses," especially, we think, if loading zones are a part of the discussion.

In closing, we should know better than to think we could generally avoid Main Street during the summer months. Not only have we found ourselves in need of a visit to the dentist, but we also discovered, as would be the case, that the batteries in both of our watches gave up the ghost. Both of these calamities, unfortunately, necessitated a trip downtown. However, since we still have a number of old-fashioned, wind it yourself watches, which seem more than willing to run when the battery powered watches fail, we were able to combine our potential two trips into one. We were quite pleased with this turn of events as it meant we needed to find only a parking place only once, not twice.

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.