Editor's Notebook: 3186 Bylines Later...Leaving the South Orange Patch Masthead

Four years and two months, or 3186 bylines ago, I started writing for South Orange Patch. I wrote local history, at first, then school events. The job expanded to meeting coverage, the community garden groundbreaking, and then to pretty much everything in South Orange that I could drive or walk to quickly.  Before we all knew it, 3186 South Orange bylines came and went. (In the interest of accuracy, that is the South Orange Patch figure, not an overall Patch total.)

Now I am taking another role at Patch, where I will have responsibilties in several towns. My byline will continue to pop up on your newsfeed and emails, though less often than before.

Carolyn Maynard-Parisi will take the helm at South Orange, as ably as she now edits Maplewood Patch. She will run both sites, a natural evolution, given our towns' ever-growing ties.  I am lucky to have her as a colleague and I believe that South Orange has won the Local Editor lottery when it comes to Carolyn's talent and commitment.

I hope you'll continue to welcome Patch into your homes and businesses, into the houses of worship, the libraries, the university, the team meetings, the neighborhood association socials, the civic events.  It has been a privilege to spend four years immersed in my hometown.

When I first moved to South Orange in the dreary winter of 1997, I walked the aisles of ShopRite and wondered if I would ever know enough people in town to greet fellow shoppers. I hoped that I would someday do my local errands slowly, because at each stop I would chat with the owner and fellow customers.

Sixteen years (and three children) later, my South Orange is populated by familiar faces, names I've typed a dozen times, and neighbors who have become friends. Many, many of you were kind to me last year, when I most needed it. For that, and for everything else, thank you, South Orange.