Interestingly enough, this year we counted 324 trick-or-treaters which is the exact number we counted last year. However, if we recall correctly, we had candy left after the 324 visitors last year.

Unfortunately, this year we ran out of goodies mid stream and, in fact, had to turn away ghosts and goblins that were waiting patiently on our porch for a treat. And we suspect that the other side of the street got more trick-or-treaters than did we. For some reason, the other side of the street seems to offer more interesting attractions or maybe better goodies or both. However, we rather doubt that we are going to change our mode of operation in hopes of getting even more trick-or-treaters. We tend to think 324 are quite enough.

We were intrigued this year by the distribution of trick-or-treaters. It was our sense, that the decision to keep daylight saving time until after Halloween cut down on the number of early trick-or-treaters. We had only 16 between 5:05 and 5:30 and 40 between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., normally a down time because of the parade, we counted 124 while we had 143 between 7 p.m. and 7:35 p.m., when we gave up the ghost. We tend to think that trick-or-treating is, unfortunately, an after dark event and thus the change in daylight savings time did not seem to translate into having more trick-or-treaters arriving during the daylight hours.

We must mention one costume which quite took our fancy this year. A youngster in either late elementary or early middle school arrived on the porch, clad in a dress shirt and pants, clutching a clipboard. On the clip board was written "Village Tax Assessor." Following his "Trick-or-Treat" he added "I’m the Village Tax Assessor." When we asked why we would want to give the Village Tax Assessor a treat, he replied "Well, it is a pretty scary costume." Since we did not have a good argument against that statement, we handed over the treat and he went merrily on his way, no doubt, scaring others on the street.

We would like to remind participants of the Literary Discussion Group, sponsored by the Women’s Club of Cooperstown, that the next meeting will be held on Thursday, Nov. 15 at 2:30 p.m. at the Village of Cooperstown Library.

The book for discussion will be "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The meeting is open to the public and anyone interested in this month’s book should plan to attend. For more information, please contact us at 547-8124.

We have received three more comments regarding the pickle relish at Millers. Mike Page, of Fair Street, told us he received a jar of the relish in return for supplying green tomatoes for the relish maker. Mike reports that it is indeed very good relish.

And Barbara Weaver, of East Springfield, called to tell us that the recipe for the relish appeared in the 1949 cookbook, Evergreen Favorite Recipes, which was produced by the Evergreen Chapter No. 261, Order of the Eastern Star in Springfield Center. The cover for the cookbook was designed by Sister Marion C. Grimm of Springfield Center and the book was printed at the Butler Press in Cooperstown.

Barbara reports that the recipe in the cookbook is exactly the same as the one we had in this column except that the cookbook recipe calls for a gill of salt instead of a half a cup. What, we wondered, was a gill of salt? It turns out that a gill is another term for a half a cup. She makes the relish almost every year and thinks it goes well on both hot dogs and hamburgers. She also remembers that Mr. Miller used to go around to area farms to buy eggs and other farm produce for use in the restaurant. We thank Barbara for sharing this information with us.

And finally we got a letter from former Cooperstonian George Cooper who now lives in Fremont, Calif. He told us that he enjoyed the relish at Millers Restaurant although during the 1930’s many people went a mile or two further up the lake to Thayers Restaurant. George writes: "Thayers’ hamburgers were just as good with catsup _ and five cents cheaper than Millers." George also told us that he used to work with the he-wee’s grandfather, Bernard Brady, at Williams Meat Market on Main Street. George also mentioned how surprised he was to read about three people he knows in the column, namely Nancy Dunn, Phyllis Selan, to whom he is related, and Ruth Weeks, whose late husband Floyd was George’s oldest and best life long friend.

We thank George for writing and are very happy to know that the column is being read all the way out there in California.

In closing, we have received an inquiry regarding our thoughts last week on the verb "wed" as to whether or not it might be proper to say "Jack will be wedding Jane?" Our reader was of the opinion that would be using the progressive form of the verb. We suspect that might well be correct. And certainly saying "Jack will be wedding Jane" is better than saying "Jack and Jane will be wedding." Perhaps the wee-we is right and we should all just stick with the verb "marry." No doubt it will save us a lot of grief in the long run.

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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