150 Years Ago

January 9, 1867 — There is a proposition before Congress to divide Texas into four parts. A joint resolution offered in the House, on Thursday, pronounces Texas the penal colony of the world, and provides for the Territories of Brazoris, Brazos, Sabine, and Lincoln to be organized on the principle of the other Territories, the public land of the State to be declared the property of the United States.

125 Years Ago

January 7, 1892 — The addition to the Burr block is progressing rapidly and has been so nearly finished in the lower part that F.E. Wilson is occupying it with his baking business. It makes the finest room in town for bakery purposes. Read Mr. Wilson’s new “ad” in this issue.

100 Years Ago

January 11, 1917 — The work being done by the physical culture department in the Union School, which started only last fall in compliance with the state law, already is showing its effects upon the pupils.

The board of education has secured the services of an excellent teacher, Miss Cynthia Frost of Perth Amboy, N.J., a graduate of the Savage School for Physical Education. She teaches also at Perryville, Erieville and DeRuyter.

The work given the children in the primary grades is made especially interesting for them. They act out stories, have singing games and at present they are imitating the different toys. The work in the other grades includes marching and gymnastics done entirely in the class rooms. The main object of the physical training is to improve the posture including the carriage, standing and sitting positions of pupils.

Already children that have defects in these are trying to correct them. In each town the work conducted by Miss Frost is practically the same. In the teachers’ training class at DeRuyter, Miss Frost teaches the pupils to teach drills and games, which they may give in their own schools another year.

The pupils receive twenty minutes’ instruction each day and the work is proving excellent here.

50 Years Ago

January 11, 1967 — Cazenovia’s top star likes mod clothes-but only on girls. He likes to be out with the gang but keeps his hair cut short. He is good at all sports-but that won’t be his whole life.

This is Jim Rybicki, top man on the basketball court and one of the school’s most popular seniors. He is the big man on campus deeply oriented toward sports to the point that golf, basketball, pool and the like seem to take a good part of his time-and yet his favorite subjects are math and science.

Jim likes people-especially his own age-and yet he doesn’t feel that being with the gang is the most important thing in life.

The Laker’s leading scorer tossed in 34 points against North Syracuse last week, out of 64 total scored by the team. In that game Moriarty was the next high with 10 points. Against Oneida Rybicki tossed in 26 out of the 65 scored. In the Auburn game Jim scored 29 out of the 65 scored by the Lakers.

This sort of high-scoring attracts the attention of college scouts, but Jim says, “All of that-college and what I’ll do there-is pretty far in the future.”

Who is Rybicki’s favorite athlete? Norm Webber, he says. “Of all the good players, I think Norm is my most valued teammate.”

Sports heroes are supposed to be cheered on by the cheers of the crowd, but Rybicki doesn’t even hear them. He gets so involved in the game that he might as well be playing on a deserted island, he says.

You could hardly call him shy, but Jim is noted for being modest. He’s not the kind to swagger around basking in the adoring gaze of his fans. As a matter of fact, this modesty has as much to do with his popularity as his spectacular scoring on the basketball court.

“You can’t dislike the guy” one of his teammates says. “He’s solid and dependable, and he works well with everyone on the team. The fact that he is a high scorer doesn’t mean that the rest of us feed him the ball just to build up the man’s reputation. He’s part of the team in every way.”

Business administration or science-he isn’t sure just which-will be his college major-when the time comes. In the meantime he likes to hang around with the boys, to admire the miniskirts and mod makeup of the girls, to play a good game of golf in the summer and concentrate on ice-skating in the winter, with an occasional game of pool to while away the dull evenings.

For a top star it’s a pretty normal sort of life. And Jim Rybicki is a pretty normal kind of guy. Except when the going gets hot and the opposition team lets him get near the basket: then the crowd roars as the points mount up.

But Jim doesn’t hear the noise. All he knows is the thrill of the game and the urge to score through the hoop, over and over. And he does.

Years Ago is compiled by Erica Barnes. She is a contributing writer for The Cazenovia Republican with a degree in history and communications from Flagler College. She compiles the column from the archives of the Cazenovia Public Library. It is written in the style of the time.