CALEDONIA – The hearts of all true Raiders are heavy today. The lights at Hamilton Field have gone dark. The face of the Caledonia-Mumford football tradition and, more famously, the voice of that tradition, Bob 'The Bear' Pullyblank, left us yesterday. If you were a little kid in Caledonia in the 70's, chances are you walked up the street on a Friday night, seeing the lights of Hamilton Field, and hearing the Bear get warmed up to announce the … [Read more...]
Farewell to Pully, the Best of the Best
CALEDONIA – It takes a certain kind of person to make a small town a community. It takes people like Don Pullyblank. Losing Mr. Pullyblank yesterday is a terrible blow for his family and friends. But it goes beyond that. Our town lost one of the solid granite blocks that a community is built on. Need a Little League coach? Pully is your guy. You say that the founder and leader of your town marching band passed away in a tragic accident, and … [Read more...]
True Valentines: An Insight into Real Love
The following is a blog post by Caledonia native Jeff Mallaber offered as an insight into true love. You can follow more of Jeff’s posts at rokk.thoughts.com. Just as we get ready to engage in our superficial and largely phony annual celebration of romance, fate stepped in and slapped me in the mug with a bonafide example of the real deal. I was waiting for my mother to get out of hip replacement surgery, sitting in the lobby of the … [Read more...]
He Saw the Light in Our Darkness: Farewell Jim Dollard
The following is an obituary by Jeff Mallaber for Jim Dollard, former Principal of Honeoye Falls-Lima Central School and much loved friend and mentor to many. You can follow Jeff's posts at rokk.thoughts.com. Jim Dollard expected the best from people. That was because he SAW the best in people. Never mind the screw-ups, the tantrums, the ego, or any of the other human failings that we tend to display in public. Jim Dollard looked past all … [Read more...]
SPORTS EDITORIAL: Say It Ain’t So, Cal-Mum VS Leroy Rivalry Shelved
This morning, the NCAA's Atlantic Coast Conference announced that Duke University and the University of North Carolina would no longer be playing basketball against each other. Ha! Just kidding!! Of course Duke and UNC are going to keep playing each other! I mean, what league would be so stupid as to discontinue its signature rivalry, the one thing that separates it from all the other conferences in the country. Nobody could be that … [Read more...]
THE ROKK: Stan Rychlicki – A Great American
Underneath the velvet, there was steel, the kind made in Pittsburgh by hard working men with Polish surnames. Stan Rychlicki was a great American. When you hear that phrase, Great American, you tend to think of famous political leaders, captains of industry, scientists and inventors. Stan was none of those. To those of us in Caledonia, he was the nice old man who always had a smile on his face and a story to tell. He was a bright spot in … [Read more...]