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8-02-2007 Granted, we ventured out on Saturday evening to take in the Chicken BBQ at the Methodist Church. However, that was a well planned excursion which found us driving the car, picking up two friends on Fair Street, and then landing in the Cooper Lane Apartments at the home of a third friend where we all quite enjoyed the take out chicken BBQ dinners. After dinner, which included a bird's eye view of the comings and goings on Chestnut Street, we once again drove the car, dropped two friends off on Fair Street and then headed for home. All in all it was a delightful evening with both good food and good company with seemingly no interference from the weekend festivities. We must also say that we were delighted to discover on Friday last that the Village of Cooperstown managed to include very early on in their hectic schedule, the painting, in a very bright yellow, of the curb on both sides of our driveway. We had long asked that the village do so in an attempt to give us a bit of relief from the proximity of parked cars when we entered or exited our driveway. We must say that we were ever hopeful that the yellow curbs would deter people from parking very close to, or in some cases, partly across our driveway. And although the yellow curb was basically ignored by three different cars over the weekend, we nonetheless feel that it is still a step in the right direction. We were somewhat amused, however, when a driver on Sunday asked us if we thought it would be all right if he parked along the yellow curb. We told him we thought it would be illegal but we supposed he could try it if he wanted to. And we gather that it must be that he did, as he locked his car and departed. Still, we think he knew it wasn't right and wonder if the other two drivers who parked along the yellow curb on Saturday also knew they were breaking the law. To our knowledge, none of the cars were ticketed given the nature of the weekend. However, we suspect that might not continue to be the case now that the festivities are over. On Sunday, we sat on our big, wide front porch with friends who came to town but decided to pass on going down to the ceremony, choosing instead to watch the people come and go on Pioneer Street. And come and go they did. We must say that we are always surprised by the number of people who choose to walk in the street, especially those who are pushing young children in strollers. We always think using the sidewalks would be safer as it would leave the streets to the cars. But, as the he-we often pointed out, it almost seems like people think they are in Disney World and not a real community. Consequently, it seems that the rules which apply to real communities do not apply to here, including the one about pedestrians using the sidewalks instead of the streets. And we were somewhat surprised to see someone heading for the induction in a wheelchair. For some reason we assumed that there must be provision made for handicapped people at the induction site. And perhaps there is and this person simply wanted to take in downtown before the induction and thus wheeled out to and back from the induction. At least we hope that is the case. And, we must admit, we were also puzzled by a gentleman practically jogging on the other side of the street who was headed for the ceremony while clutching a pair of crutches under his arm. We thought that to be most odd, but perhaps he knew something we didn't. As usual, we were bemused by the people who think it appropriate to picnic on someone's front lawn. It is not something we would ever have the nerve to do, and yet it almost seems to be a given that someone will use one's front lawn for a picnic sometime during Hall of Fame Weekend. And, although such picnics do not seem to cause any real harm, it somehow seems presumptuous on the part of the picnickers to do so. It might be one thing if we actually knew the people or even if they asked if we would mind. But alas, we never do and neither do they. Given the number of young people who live on the street, we had a plethora of lemonade and cookie stands up and running on Sunday. We were quite surprised by the one two doors down that proudly proclaimed free lemonade. We discovered, much to our delight, that not only was the lemonade free, but it was also delivered, along with cookies, to our front porch at no charge. We were duly impressed. We were also taken with the stand kitty-corner across the street that was selling lemonade, cookies and wonderful warm brownies, the proceeds from which were designated to benefit the children's section of the village library. Needless to say, since one of our friends on the front porch was a librarian by trade, several trips were made across the street in support of this worthwhile project. In closing, we must admit that throughout the entire weekend, the only negative comments we heard were from two gentlemen passing by the house who obviously had left the ceremony shortly after it began. And we gather from what they said, it was not their favorite moment. One of the gentlemen, who told us he has attended the induction ceremony for 10 years, said he had never seen anything like this year. He couldn't hear or see anything. It reminded him of Woodstock. And he departed with the observation that "... your sleepy little town has turned into New York City." These seemed to be harsh words indeed. Granted, given the pre-induction hype, we might have expected reactions such as these. But, in view of the weekend from our little corner of the world, we thought the pre-induction hype was just that, hype, and that in fact, the weekend had gone much better than we ever imagined. But, perhaps there are aspects to the weekend that we missed here on Pioneer Street. 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. |
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