Published: May 01, 2008 12:29 pm         

In These Otsego Hills

Our recent trip to the Midwest has, once again, confirmed our thought that spending time away from home just makes it that much more difficult for us to keep track of time. Since returning home we have felt we are about two months behind the rest of the world. In fact, we are completely amazed that we are staring May activities in the face. We can’t quite believe that this week on Friday and Saturday Christ Church will hold its annual spring rummage sale. We haven’t even been able to think about whether or not we actually have any available rummage, let alone haul it over for the sale. As a result we have now set our sights on determining what is rummage in time for the fall sale. Hopefully, however, others have done a better job and the sale will proceed on Friday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 a.m. until noon. We understand there will be a bag sale on Saturday. The sale will be held at the Parish House located at 69 Fair St. in Cooperstown. Next up on the schedule will be the Women’s Club annual Spring Luncheon and Fashion Show at the Otesega Hotel, which will be held on Wednesday, May 14 at 1 p.m. Following the hotel’s luncheon buffet, the fashion show will feature clothing from Cooperstown Country Crafts, Ellsworth & Sill, The Finishing Touch, Little Bo’tique, Metro Fashions, the Shop at the Leatherstocking Golf Course, and the Village Cobbler.us.

Tickets for the event are $25 and available at Augur’s, Ellsworth & Sill, the Village Cobbler, or by calling Joyce Degelmann at 293-7388. This year, the Women’s Club Board of Directors decided the all proceeds from the luncheon and fashion show will benefit the Cooperstown Food Bank.us.

And finally, the Literary Discussion Group, which is sponsored by the Women’s Club of Cooperstown, will meet on Thursday, May 22 at 2:30 p.m. in the Village of Cooperstown Library to discuss “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” by Kim Edwards. The meeting is open to the public.us.

We hasten to point out that trying to catch up with upcoming events is only one of the problems encountered after an out of town trip. It is equally difficult to try and figure out what one has missed while away. Granted it is not too confusing to take in what has been covered by the local papers. But sorting out the information from the ever informational grapevine usually proves to be more of a chore. After all, news of the “Have you heard ...” variety can easily become outdated within a matter of hours or days thus making it more difficult to sort through. Therefore, hearing it long after the fact can be somewhat problematic.us.

Nonetheless, we were definitely amused by a report from a friend that some vending machines located throughout the village have apparently run afoul of the zoning ordinance rules regarding signs. According to our source, the wording on the suspect machines took up more space than is allowed by the sign ordinance.us.

Our reaction was to laugh. To complain about the size of the sign on a vending machine seems somewhat silly to us. We simply cannot imagine that having the sign conform to the sign ordinance would in any way make the very existence of the plunked down at random vending machine seem more palatable. A vending machine in all its glory is a vending machine in all its glory regardless of the size of its sign. Besides, as we passed this juicy tidbit on to another friend, we discovered not everyone has even noticed one of the vending machines in question, let alone its oversized sign. Of course, we readily admit that we have absolutely no idea if this bit of grapevine news is accurate. But we must admit that we tend to think, given it is Cooperstown, that it is at least plausible. We can but hope that if it is indeed true, it means that all of the really pressing issues facing the village have, in our absence, been solved so that time can be spend on some of the seemingly lesser issues of the village. Of course, we tend to think that one of the biggest issues facing residents of the village, as well as the country in general, would be the price of gasoline. On our trip we found the price to be all over the map, from a low of $3.139 a gallon to $3.569 a gallon. The price coming home was overall about 10 cents more per gallon than was the price going out. In all, we spent over $260 on gas for the trip, a marked increase, we might add, over our last such trip.us.

And while we can understand the variation in the price of gas on our trip as different states impose different amounts of tax, we have somewhat more trouble understanding the price of gasoline as posted last Friday in Richfield Springs. There, at the three stations we noticed, gas went for either $3.629 a gallon, $3.679 a gallon or $3.779 a gallon. Of course, since the three stations are not within sight of each other, it makes it difficult for the driver to comparison shop without driving around, something one might not be inclined to do, given any of the prices of gasoline.us.

In closing, we can’t help wonder exactly how drivers are coping with the ever escalating price of gasoline. As it turns out, leaving our job at Christ Church has proven to be timely as it will save us the gas that we used to use to drive around the block to work. But beyond that, we don’t quite see how we can cut back more on a regular basis. I do suppose we could skip the two family weddings, one on Martha’s Vineyard and one at the family cottage on Lake Michigan, which have been planned for this year. But we really think we are not inclined to do so. So we shall have to look elsewhere for ideas to curtail our use of gasoline. If anyone has any brilliant ideas, we certainly hope he or she will be willing to share them with us.

We remain, In these Otsego hills, The Ellsworthsus.

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.