Soup’s On, Chili’s On, Meaning
Winter Carnival Now Underway
![John and Jean Finch, left, and Pete Collins and Angie Harrington, right, partake of Soup 'R Chili during the noon hour at Cooperstown Baptist Church. It's the annual unofficial launch of the Cooperstown Winter Carnival. (Jim Kevlin/allotsego.com)](https://www.allotsego.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/john-jean-finch.jpg)
![Old habits are hard to break: former Cooperstown Baptist Church Pastor Douglas Deer drove over from Cortland with wife Susan for the Soup'R Chili luncheon, as they have for years now. Here, Deer confers with the Rev. Bob Turner, his interim successor.](https://www.allotsego.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/two-pastors--300x249.jpg)
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COOPERSTOWN – You know when the Cooperstown Winter Carnival is officially underway when the aroma of chili and soup starts wafting from the basement of Cooperstown Baptist Church on Elm Street, as it did leading up to 11 a.m. today. If you missed the Soup ‘R Chili Luncheon today, it’s on again Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
In what’s becoming a tradition, the gang from Glimmerglass Festival drove down the lake from the opera house to partake. And, this year, Homer Osterhoudt, who has attended 67 of the 70 Baseball Hall of Fame Inductions (there were no Inductions during WWII), had a table full of memorabilia to share with attendees.
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Other of today’s highlights include fireworks at 6:30 p.m. in Lakefront Park or from The Otesaga’s balcony. At 7, Peter Ostrum, star of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” will make opening remarks at a screening of the 1971 classic at the Cabin Fever Festival’s showing in the Hall of Fame’s Grandstand Theater. (The theme of this year’s carnival is “Cooperstown and the Chocolate Factory.”)
Plus, the Fizzy Lifting Cooler Crawl has something for revellers from 5 p.m. through closing at Bocca Osteria, the Hawkeye Grill, Cooperstown VFM, Cooley’s and the Pratt.