Buffalo Bills fans turn up in surprising places, even the heart of Patriots country
The Bills make people want to shout. In Buffalo, in Rochester and in Maine, as well.
Maine? Yes, Maine.
We’re back from two weeks on Peaks Island, a small community about a 20-minute ferry ride from Portland, and I can safely say that Bills fever has spread.
I know this because of some field reporting by my wife, Cindy.
On her daily walks around the island, Cindy usually wore a Bills shirt, and inevitably someone, often from western New York, but not always, would stop her, confess their love for the team, and/or their admiration of Bills fans.
In the Brady days, Patriots fans strutted their stuff on the island, but, to me, they seemed missing in action. Cindy reported that she only had to put one of them in his place for doubting the Bills.
She was more understanding of a Miami Dolphins fan who pointed out that he and she hated the same team, the Patriots, of course.
People told Cindy that football in Buffalo sure seemed fun to watch, what with all those mildly (mildly?) inebriated Cheektowagians diving onto flaming card tables. That happens all the time, they asserted; it’s what makes Buffalo special. Cindy stressed that the games are fun, as well.
We came off the island last Saturday, and just to keep the vibe alive, Cindy wore a Bills shirt on our way home. It paid off. “Go Bills,” said a guy we passed while taking a break in Wilmington, Vermont.
An island in Maine. A small town in Vermont. The Bills are everywhere. It’s OK to shout.
A community’s loss: Kurt Cylke
In April 2016, a semitrailer carrying milk smashed into the granite fountain in the middle of Geneseo’s Main Street.
The fountain, which featured a bronze statue of a small bear at the top of a central column, was damaged beyond repair. The bear, known as Emmeline, survived, though a little battered.
F. Kurt Cylke Jr., a sociology professor at SUNY Geneseo, who died of cancer on July 29, at age 59, led the successful effort to replace the fountain with a new 11-ton basin, the granite taken from Connecticut and milled in Vermont.
The arrival of the new basin in June 2017 was, Kurt told me, like “Christmas morning.”
Kurt was someone who took on big tasks and got them done, the sort of person who, as his obituary noted, “did more than serve the community; he created community.”
He was also the driving force behind the restoration of the long stone wall that runs along Route 20A at the edge of the storied Wadsworth Homestead.
Saturday mornings in good weather, for 12 years now, Kurt and other volunteers gathered to “save the wall,” piecing it together, stone by stone, slowly working their way up a hill, coming close to a mile finished. The wall, like the fountain, stands as a tribute, to Kurt Cylke. He left much behind.
Memmott Welcome home, Emmeline. Geneseo gets its bear fountain back
A native of New Haven, Connecticut, and a graduate of the University of Richmond, Kurt joined the Geneseo faculty in 1990. His survivors include his wife, Anna Kowalchuk; his daughter, Callaghan Arianna, and son, Thomas; as well as his mother, Mary Cylke; and his sisters, Mary Mattingly and Virginia Cylke.
A celebration of his life is planned for Aug. 12 on the grounds of the Hunt Races on Nations Road outside of Geneseo.
Remarkable Rochesterians: Claudia Rosett-Wilson
The artist Victoria Brzustowicz of Penfield suggested we add the name of this distinguished journalist, who died on May 29 at age 67, to the list of Remarkable Rochesterians that can be found at https://data.democratandchronicle.com/remarkable-rochesterians/:
Claudia Rosett-Wilson (1955-2023): Writing for the Wall Street Journal, she witnessed, and reported on, the June 4, 1989, massacre at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, as the Chinese government killed hundreds of student protesters. A graduate of Brighton High School living on Keuka Lake at the time of her death, she had degrees from Yale University, Columbia University, and the University of Chicago. At the Journal from 1984-2002, she served in Hong Kong, was bureau chief in Moscow and was a member of the editorial board. Later, as a freelancer, she exposed corruption in the U.N.’s oil-for-peace program in Iraq. The recipient of many awards, she was a foreign policy fellow at the International Women’s Forum.
From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills fans can be found in surprising places, even New England
