This past week we had the opportunity to help label, in preparation for mailing, the Cooperstown Concert Series brochure detailing their upcoming 38th season. We have helped the Concert Series in the past with various mailings and always find it to be an enjoyable time. And this time was certainly no exception. In fact, it turned out that residents of the Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home had, evidently, volunteered to help with the effort and so we found ourselves in the activities room at the home surrounded by a most interesting group of people. In addition to the usual Concert Series people, namely Jane Johngren, Tim Wiles and Elaine Schaeffer, we labeled with Alberta Bowers, Ruth Druse, Peg Hage, Ellen Hankin, Tarby Hoes, Fae Malanie, Hilde Parr, Leon Rathbun and Cathie Sanford. All in all, it was a most delightful time as well as a most productive time. Two thousand five hundred four brochures were labeled in just over one hour. We were amazed. A big thank you goes to the Thanksgiving Home for their help with the mailing.

We must say that we were quite taken with the 2007 Cooperstown Bicentennial Parade of Saturday last. Normally, we tend not to be all that enthusiastic about parades and actually felt we had taken in our parade allotment for the year. But, since we were offered a ticket for the reserved bleacher seating and we were able to find people to take us down and bring us back home, we decided to give it a whirl. And we must say we were very glad that we did.

We felt that the parade was able to capture the spirit and sense of community that is Cooperstown. From the beginning of the parade with the VFW and American Legion, as well as the VFW and American Legion Auxiliaries, to the end of the parade which featured the Anheuser Busch Budweiser Clydesdales, one was able to take in that which makes Cooperstown, Cooperstown.

In addition to the revered Cooperstown Community Band, we were treated to the Cooperstown Central School Marching Band. We thought the appearance by the CCS band was no small undertaking as the school year was but three days old at the time of the parade. We salute all the CCS musicians, as well as their director, Peter Daum, for a job well done.

We would also like to salute all of our area fire departments which participated in the parade, including Cooperstown, Fly Creek, Hartwick,

Hartwick Seminary, Middlefield and Milford. It goes without saying that all of these dedicated firefighter volunteers are an essential part of any community such as Cooperstown. We give them all a big thank for the job they do day in and day out for our community.

We also enjoyed seeing all the area organizations which work with our children and young people. Local groups which were represented in the parade included the Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Cooperstown School of Ballet, Cooperstown Youth Football and the Girl Scouts. We also enjoyed seeing the other local organizations which marshaled their memberships to participate in the parade. These included the DAR, the Free Masons, the Glimmerglass Gal Red Hat Society, the Lake and Valley Garden Club, the Lion’s Club, the Native Daughters, the Native Sons and Rotary Club.

Complimenting all of the aforementioned entries in the parade, were floats and marchers representing Bassett Healthcare, the Farmer’s Museum, the Foothills Performing Arts Center, the Fly Creek Cider Mill, Glimmerglass Opera, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and Wilber National Bank. We were also treated to a number of great locally owned antique cars, the usual contingent of local politicians, and, quite to our surprise, Samuel Nelson, United States Supreme Court Judge, as well as Mary Imogene Bassett, the very doctor who delivered, in 1908, Charles Donaldson Ellsworth, our father-in-law.

We were also pleased to see that the Cooper family was well represented in the parade as was the Clarke family of Hyde Hall. The Coopers have, obviously, been here since the beginning of the village and the Clarke family did not come on the scene all that much later. We were indeed pleased that both families were in the parade.

All in all, we thought it was a fantastic parade which reminded us once again what a great community Cooperstown is, due, in very large part, to its caring and committed residents. We thank you all for a job well done.

In closing, we did note the one big drawback to the parade was the exhaust which spewed forth from a number of the antique cars. We could not help but think that if today’s cars came with such fumes, we would find air pollution to be much, much worse than it is. It reminded us that sometimes the good old days were not really always all that good and that progress is not always a bad thing. We tend to think when it comes to individual automobile exhaust we are indeed better off today than we have been in the past. And for that, our lungs are thankful.

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.