In a new wrinkle this year for the Women’s Club, as well as any other organization which uses Christ Church facilities for meetings and events, there are, we understand, new regulations regarding the extremely limited on-site parking at the church. Citing safety considerations, parking at the church will, as of Sept. 1, be limited to designated parking spaces of which there will be four, one handicapped and three others which will be available for event parking when not in use by others such as church staff members. The church is recommending that groups using the church designate any available on-site parking for handicapped use only. Loading and unloading will be allowed, although vehicles must be moved once loaded or unloaded.

And while we quite understand the need to regulate parking at the church, and trust that Women’s Club members will respect the church’s regulations, we can’t help but think this will just be one more issue, in a seemingly long list of issues this summer, which will make its way into conversation about town. But, since we have already gone through induction day parking, the flag flap, "no parking funeral only" signs, not to mention controlling our destiny through paid parking on Main and Pioneer Streets, we suspect we will be able to deal with still another seemingly annoying but necessary issue. Besides, it definitely beats talking about the weather which is another topic of conversation altogether.

In fact, we readily admit that we quite enjoy chewing the fat with people about the various issues that surface in the village. And we must admit that our favorite remark of the summer concerned the flag long before the most recent flag flap controversy.

Earlier in the summer we were asked by a resident if we knew why the flag was once again at half staff. We had to admit we did not, but thought perhaps we had missed some news item of import. However, our enquirer puzzled and puzzled over the possibilities, all of which we dismissed as highly unlikely, and she finally asked if we thought perhaps the rope on the flag pole was broken allowing the flag to settle down the pole as it were. Since we had no other explanation, we thought it was perhaps as good as any although we must admit we thought it rather diminished the concept of flying the flag at half staff.

Earlier this month we had another brief visit from the wee-we and his fiancee, Annie, as they passed through on their way to spend a week with her family at a camp on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks.

Given the logistics of the accommodations, it was decided that Annie would take our car and motor up on a Friday. We would follow on Saturday with the wee-we and the dogs, Barnaby and Bella.

Of course, the whole procedure was not quite as simple as it sounds as the wee-we was desirous of riding his Vespa from Cooperstown to Big Moose a distance of some 100 miles. Our job was to follow him in case there was any problem.

Our biggest fear, which we hasten to point out did not come to fruition, was that he would fall off the scooter and we would run over him. Annie’s biggest fear was that he would wipe out on Vickerman Hill which, of course, he didn’t. But it did make, we thought, for a rather nerve racking ride, particularly when he started passing cars on the stretch of Route 12/28 north of Utica. As we always say, once a mother, always a mother. Fortunately, our stay with the Higbys on Big Moose Lake quite made up for the rigors of the ride up there.

In closing, we did decide, as we traveled Route 28 to the north, that Cooperstown is rather fortunate that neither of the state highways which pass through the village traverse Main Street. Unfortunately this is not the case in places like Old Forge and Inlet. Consequently while motoring through both of those Adirondack communities, we realized that not only did they deal with the traffic generated by people visiting their main streets, but they also had to deal on their main streets with all the Adirondack traffic that was just passing through. It certainly slowed our trip through Old Forge down to a virtual crawl through town. It also make us quite glad that here in Cooperstown we have figured out how to avoid, for the most part, having to motor up or down Main Street in the summer.

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.

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