Dorothy ([email protected]), Had you opened my personal E-mail (dated 3 Jul 2003) to you and read it (rather than simply deleting it without reading it) you would have found that I too was bidding on the Oswego Charity Records for the purpose of donating it to an appropriate repository. In your haste to delete mail (that even had the valid subject line, "Oswego Charity Book"), you pushed the price of the book up substantially. I think, if you go back and read your recently deleted mail, you will see that about which I am speaking. I finally dropped out of the bidding as I determined (correctly) that you were not going to respond to anyone...so that we might have purchased the book at a more reasonable price. I had contacted Linda Crannell, (The Poorhouse Lady)...and as you can see from her correspondence, she tried to inform you and others. I am happy that it was purchased with the intent to preserve it. But I think that had you contacted Linda up front, it could have been done at less cost. Hope this is a lesson to all. Sincerely, Rusty Okoniewski Orlando, FL

Rusty: Sorry Rusty--my e-mail address is not [email protected] . I don't know who you e-mailed but it was not me, and I did not get any e-mail from you. I really wanted that book as we have family in Oswego from that time frame, but it got too expensive for me. I would have given it to the Historical Society (after I finished going over it) as the lady that runs the place is a remarkable person. I have met her many times. The only reason I entered into the bidding in the first place was because of an alert from the "poorhouse lady" about the availability on e-bay. I did not know about it before hand, and would not have known about it without her alert. I had not gone into the e-bay site in quite awhile. Oh yes, I do know of a Dorothy Quebbeman but she died in early June. I daresay her daughter deleted your e-mail probably wondering what this was all about. That Dorothy lived in Indiana--I do not. Have I learned a lesson? Probably not. I will bid on something I want, whether I want it for myself or to donate to an organization. If I HAD received an e-mail alerting me to the fact that you or someone else wanted to donate it, I might have backed off, but then that isn't really fair to the person that had it to sell, is it? Dorothy