Published: September 18, 2008 12:10 pm         

In These Otsego Hills

It has come to our attention that our Pioneer Street neighbors, Alice and Howard Talbot, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on September 11. And, although we were asked to participate in a ôcard showerö for the Talbots. we must admit that with the onslaught of mail that had accumulated during our recent trip, we did not unearth the notice regarding the anniversary until it was too late to participate in the recommended shower. Thus we are reduced to sending our congratulations to the Talbots on their many years together via this column. We have, of course, known the Talbots for a number of years now and have many fond memories of various events in which we all participated. Plus we have always admired their dedication over the years as Bassett volunteers.

And, since the advent of the Upper Pioneer Street Block Party, we have come to covet our annual opportunity to partake of Howard’s (at least we think it is Howard’s) baked bean casserole. Every year when Alice tells Howard it is time to go home and get the baked beans we can feel our anticipation mounting. In fact this past May at the block party we were able to convince Howard to locate the beans at our table as there was no room for them on the actual food tables.

We were in heaven. We extend our congratulations to Alice and Howard and wish them many more years together which, of course, we hope will contain more baked bean casseroles for the Upper Pioneer Street Block Party.

And while thinking happy thoughts about the Pioneer Street block party, we note that Eagle Street has also had its own block party. We received the following communique regarding the festivities there: The 13th annual Eagle St block party was held on Sunday, September 7. Eagle St Mayor Tom Lyon was in charge of the weather and did a fine job. Constable Charlie Hill was the good manners police and his wife Julie was our pilates instructor. Fire marshal and safety officer Paul Bedworth inspected all the grills used for the event (one). Susan Lettis was the official photographer and press representative. Welcomed to the street was the Longhi family- Jim, Suzanne and Joseph. They will move into their new home soon and got a chance to meet their driveway sharing neighbors and discuss details of snow removal. A new event for this year was a group flower arrangement. Everyone was asked to bring a flower from a garden (not necessarily their own) to add to a vase. We managed to fill four. Hostesses were again Cindy Hubbell, Jean Lyon, Michelle Adsit and Robin Lettis.

We also received a post script about the Eagle Street Block Party which read: ``We also celebrated Milo Stewart’s 80th birthday and reenacted the great raccoon hunt with Evan and Rick Jagels taking major roles.’’ Milo’s birthday, for which we extend our best wishes, we understand. We are clueless about the great raccoon hunt but if it was important to Eagle Street we definitely wish to include it in the report.

During our visit with the wee-we and wee-she in Ohio we asked if we might have some green tomatoes to bring home to Cooperstown so that we might try making Mrs. Miller’s relish that we wrote about last year about this time. The wee-we immediately decided we could try making the relish in Ohio. We pointed out that we didn’t have the recipe but if we could find the right column on-line we could probably come up with the recipe. And, after a bit of searching we were able to locate the column of October 18, 2007 which contained the recipe. And after a quick shopping trip at the local Kroger’s we were ready to begin.

We found the process of making the relish relatively simple, no doubt because we were not the ones doing it. Once the ingredients had been dutifully chopped up and added to the cooking kettle, the wee-we kept asking us if it looked right. We, of course, had not a clue as we have never seen the relish before in our life. However, whether or not it looks right, the fact still remains that it is indeed delicious. In fact, we could not wait to get home and try it on the hamburger pattie that we knew was lurking in our freezer just waiting to be smothered in Mrs. Miller’s relish. And the Ohio Ellsworths were so taken with the possibility of using the relish as Christmas gifts that they made another batch the day we left.

In closing, as we were being told about the second batch of relish, the wee-we told us that they had used normal vinegar instead of the apple cider vinegar we had purchased. We were somewhat taken aback by the statement as we thought apple cider vinegar was the normal vinegar. It certainly is the vinegar that we grew up with. We were informed, however, that white vinegar is the normal vinegar these days. We were flabbergasted. We never even bought white vinegar until we decided to do so to take the odor of pet stains out of the carpets. And with that as our introduction to white vinegar, it has never occurred to us to cook with it. But, when we explained this, we were told that we were just old and not in tune with today’s norms. We can but conclude that it is yet another of our dinosaur moments.

We remain,

In these Otsego hills,
The Ellsworths
The Ellsworths may be reached by mail at 105 Pioneer Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326, by telephone at 607-547-8124 or by e-mail at cellsworth1@stny. rr.com. They look forward to hearing from you.