LETTER from TERRY BERKSON ‘Bootlegging Hermits’ Life Rich As Renaissance Man’s One cold and leafless November morning about 40 years ago, I was deer hunting on Panther Mountain outside of Richfield Springs with my friend Paul O’Connor. After a long climb, we came into an area that was covered with hardwood trees that stood in gentle depressions and on top of small hummocks. The rolling terrain repeated itself over and over in a nondescript fashion so that it was easy…
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Columns - Page 121
FOOD FOR THOUGHT Adams Lost After One Term, But Eventually Got Over It (After retiring, one-term President John) Adams led a quiet life, tending to his farm, while Jefferson’s presidency came and went. Twelve years after he left Washington, Adams finally snapped out of his funk and sent a letter to his old rival… Jefferson wrote back immediately, remembering the long years in which “we were fellow laborers in the same cause.” For the next 14 years, a fountain of…
LETTER from MICHAEL JEROME Polio Fight Informs COVID Fight Editor’s Note: Michael Jerome of Cooperstown chairs the Polio Plus Committee of the Rotary E-Club of Global Trekkers, a role he played for years at the Cooperstown club. Sixty years ago, every parent in the western world feared their child would be afflicted with the crippling disease of polio. Vaccines developed by Drs. Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin enabled the U.S., Canada and several European countries to become polio free by…
LETTER from MARIA NOTO Individualism Won’t Stop COVID Individualism in the United States through the lens of SARS-CoV-2 defines freedom as “freedom to not wear a mask,” as opposed to “freedom from getting sick.” Since I was a young girl whenever I felt remotely ill I was told to “suck it up,” get out of bed, go to school, socialize and learn. This attitude is rooted in the American belief that “sickness is a weakness;” sickness is an attitude. To…
LETTER from JIM ATWELL ‘Sometimes A Firm Rap… Remember me? For scores of years, I was a guy who visited with you through columns in local newspapers, most recently The Freeman’s Journal & Hometown Oneonta. I loved doing it – until last summer, when the sky fell on me. Or more precisely, until I fell off our back deck, down four steps, and onto an unforgiving asphalt drive. I was knocked senseless when my forehead hit the driveway. (Later, lots…
LETTER from SENATOR JIM SEWARD More Thank Ever, Shop Locally This Christmas The holiday shopping season is in full swing and we are being hit from all sides with a seemingly endless barrage of commercials and promotions. While there are a number of factors shoppers use to evaluate potential purchases, one that should be kept in mind is where products are made. Shopping our local Main Streets is one of the best ways to get in the holiday spirit and…
HOMETOWN HISTORY December 10, 2020 150 Years Ago Home and Vicinity – Next year will witness the erection of more buildings in Oneonta than in any previous year. It has surpassed the expectations of the most sanguine, but we look for greater improvement next year. Many only await the opening of spring to begin the erection of business houses and residences. Mr. Peter W. Swart, so long and well known in this town and vicinity, died quite suddenly at his…
BOUND VOLUMES December 10, 2020 200 YEARS AGO Village Ordinance: “That the owner of every dwelling-house, office, shop or store, shall provide on or before the first Day of October next, under the penalty of one dollar for neglect or refusal so to do, one Leather Fire Bucket for every two fire places in each and every dwelling house, office, shop, or store; and that each dwelling house, shop or store, that may have but one fire place, shall nevertheless…
LETTER from RICHARD STERNBERG STERNBERG: Doctor In The House (Isolated) Like many of us this Thanksgiving, my family had a very truncated get together and dinner. My daughter visited from Annapolis, Md. She had been self-isolating, had rarely gone out, always took precautions, and was tested the week before she decided to come visit. We decided that the risk of being infected by her was very, very minimal after all of these precautions, and invited her. I myself have been…
LETTER from ERNA MORGAN McREYNOLDS The Joys, Challenges of Retirement Mom told me that they promised her the “Golden Years” but she got the “Rust Years.” She had dreamed of retiring. Yet after a couple of weeks into retirement her litany changed from “can’t wait to retire” to telling me: “Don’t do it’’. My Mom was born when women were supposed to stay home, while their husbands supported the family. But, my Dad, Mom’s husband, lost their farm and his…
