When I last left you, I was visiting family members just outside of Smyrna but nearer to Otselic on Sunday evening. We ended up staying at my relative's house until after 9 PM. We got back to where I was staying around 10 PM. My cousin and his wife went to bed, while I got busy downloading and answering email until my normal bedtime of 3 AM. The next morning after breakfast and another download of email, we set out on the day's adventure. We traveled east out of South New Berlin on route 23 towards Morris. In all my years of going to going to New York, Morris was not one of those most visited places. The last time I remember being there had been at night, visiting at a friend's church. Of course by daylight, the town didn't seem to be as I remembered it. We flitted in and out of Morris in a heartbeat, heading east along 23 towards and through West Laurens, West Oneonta and into Oneonta proper. The journey over, though not that far, was a pleasant respite from my daily trek back home. Along our route we came upon an unusual sight - that of the car in front of us for quite some time. What was striking about this late model car was that it apparently had no visible driver. No head or arms were to be seen. Even looking at the reflection in the rear view mirror of the car showed not a soul driving. Had it not been for the shoulder strap of the seat belt mechanism showing that it was in use, one could have concluded the car was being driven by remote control! I'd not seen such a sight since my last journey to Florida years ago. I was to meet in Oneonta at 10:30 but because of a late start and other factors, did not arrive until nearly 11:00 to meet, chat and say thank you so much to Sandy Goodspeed, without which a nice section of material on the Chenango site would not be there. The neat thing about vacation and a loose agenda, is that one has the luxury of time, to a certain extent, to sit and talk of what has been accomplished, to plan further and to talk about things in general. I told Sandy about the material I had found in Norwich at the county library - the 1890 New York, Ontario and Western railway guide - a quasi-1890 census for those areas. She in turn told me of her next project she's working on and other interests she has in the area of central New York. The unfortunate thing though was that time passed quickly and it was soon time to go as I was to meet the New Berlin Town Historian in New Berlin at 100PM. Now we come to the explanation of time zones. Most folks are well acquainted with the Eastern Standard Zone, the Central, Pacific and sometimes even the Mountain time zones but few people in the North are aware of the Southern Time Zone. Basically the Southern Time Zone covers that region of the South where time either stands still or is nearly nonexistent. The concept of time standing still is fairly well understood because folks tend to think of Rip Van Winkle in that regard. However, the nearly nonexistent is much harder to understand much less explain. There are probably many variations of this but two particular versions come to mind at the present. One version is where Southerners who have been visiting someone decides it is time to go home or move on. Gradually pushing away from the table or getting to their feet they begin the process of saying goodbye and leaving. One can gauge how Southern one is by how long it takes to actually leave after saying goodbye. If one has planned a short visit to someone, it's best to come in say hello and then immediately start saying goodbye. The average good-bye lasts approximately 30 minutes while others may stretch into several hours or even days. The second variation of this phenomenon denies that clocks exist - saying that we'll get there when we get there - no need to hurry or that somehow one can wish their way to somewhere by forcing the clock to tick slower on their account while they travel at the speed of light. Sometimes Southerners take this time zone with them when they travel outside of the South. I trend toward the latter but have been known to use the former as circumstances demand. Suffice it to say I did not get to New Berlin for my 100 PM appointment with Barb Avery. Instead we went into the town library. The librarian told me that Barb had just left and that she would call and let her know I had arrived at the library. The library in New Berlin is the best equipped library I've seen for a town of its size. They have 4 computer terminals for public access with at least 2 Internet ready. The library also has a small but impressive section of books on Chenango, Madison and other counties as well as regional and state resources. Barb soon came and we talked about New Berlin. In recent months she had started sending me information for the web site, including identification of the men in the GAR reunion photo, cemetery listings and other material. She had been on the committee that surveyed St. Andrews cemetery this past summer, which I'll put on-line once the material makes it to me. We chatted on and I told her the material I'd found in Norwich and of my visit to meet Sandy earlier in the morning. I told Barb I'd seen and copied some pages from a book at the library - the 1869-70 Childs directory of Chenango county, which a young man had contributed about 1/2 the towns listings to me to post about a year and a half ago. In the meantime, my cousin, went across the street and purchased a map of Chenango County for me. Even though it is a modern map, it shows lots of what I'd call wide spots in the road that have a community name attached to it. I used one of the computers at the library to show Barb some of the work I'd done on other sites as we discussed how best to present data. We then visited the previously mentioned room of historical material where I talked with her about what I'd like to have added to the web site. I spied a copy of a book similar to the Chenango County directory I'd seen at the Norwich library and made a comment about how I'd passed up getting a copy years before, as I had only one line about one relative in it. Barb then made a generous offer to give me an extra copy that she had of the Madison County book. She had this at her home and took me there to get the book. Arriving at her house she showed me some of the records she has there. I saw where she had listings of cemeteries and mentioned that there was one cemetery in all of Chenango County that I wish I had a listing for as I've relatives there and one that I'd seen many obits mention as the final resting place. That cemetery is Sherburne West Hill. She then told me she had a copy of same at least through the late 1950s that she would get copied for me. As the day was getting late we returned home. ----------- As the day is getting late here - 245 AM, I'm heading for the bed and catch ya'll another day in one time zone or another! Tim Stowell Moderator Chenango County mailing list Coordinator Chenango County, NYGenWeb pages http://www.rootsweb.com/~nychenan