While our current Evening Sun reporters are working to bring you our Progress Chenango 2009 special sections this week, I’ve asked five of my favorite ES alumni to fill in as guest columnists. I hope you enjoy catching up with them as much as I did. – Ed.

A serious mountain of half-spent nacho plates and Hungry Man dinner trays has to be left out on the kitchen counter or next to the couch for days, maybe weeks, before any cockroaches come around in Chenango County. That’s always been my experience, anyway. Even then, the Upstate New York roach, usually no bigger than a thumbnail or a Siamese Raisinet, waits until the light’s off to scurry out into the open.