I wouldn't trade these years for anything, yet, we can't go on living like this.

Oh, no, San Jose, it's not you. It's me. You see, my family and I will be moving to Georgia in a few weeks, so my relationship with you and your neighborhoods will have to end.

I know you will feel shocked about this; you could not have seen it coming. But I do have to move on. Please don't blame yourself. You've been everything an editor of a couple of community newspapers could have asked for in a city. Your personalities are charming, you are beautiful in certain lights, and even a little scandalous at times, which was really exciting. Mostly, though, I feel really safe around you. Nevertheless, I have to leave.

Please don't think that I've been tempted away from you. Just because Atlanta has a Major League Baseball team (and professional football and basketball teams, as well) didn't play any role in my decision. Hey, you've got the NHL here, or at least you will again, one day.

I see great things in your future. You'll pull yourself out of this financial crisis you've gotten yourself into, eventually. I just wish I could be here to help.

And you'll eventually get over your grand jury infection. It'll just take a little work and a little time and you'll be feeling A-OK in no time. Just know that what doesn't kill you can only make you stronger.

So, I guess this is good-bye. I wish you blue skies and happiness.

We can still be friends, right?

-- Greg

But really, folks

OK, so in reality, yes, I will be leaving Community Newspapers on July 7. And yes, I will be moving to suburban Atlanta. And yes, I will miss San Jose and the two neighborhoods I have learned quite well: Almaden Valley and the greater Rose Garden district.

I don't know of any other job that gives one the opportunity to learn so much about a city or its neighborhoods as that of community newspaper editor. Over the last 20 months, I have been honored to meet many of this city's model citizens and certifiable characters.

I am very proud of the way these two Resident newspapers have developed. The Rose Garden Resident had been publishing for five months when I joined the Community Newspapers staff, and the Almaden Resident was a mere three weeks from printing its first edition. I hope that the stories, photographs, editorials and columns published in these pages have been as informative and entertaining to its readers as it has been for me.

I am also very proud of the accolades the papers and its staff have won from the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the Peninsula Press Club and the California Teachers Association. We thought we have been doing good work, but this confirmation from our peers is gratifying.

Land of Y'all

So what will I be doing "way down South?" First things first, the twins will be starting kindergarten in September, so I will be helping them make the transition from laid-back California to whatever it is the South is like. I'm heading to Georgia without any real knowledge of the place or any preconceptions. The only thing I really know about the state is that it gets very muggy and the world stops on autumn Saturdays when the University of Georgia plays football.

After the kids are settled, I'm going to chain myself to my desk and finish the novel I've been picking at for five years. I figure in six months I'll have a finished product (that will have to be reworked several times, but at least the hard part will be done) or I'll know that I'm not going to be the next William Faulkner and go back to newspapers. Either way, it'll be an adventure.

Because I know next to nothing about the South (i.e., is "the South" capitalized?), and because I don't want to alienate my new neighbors by saying unintentionally something too Yankee, I bought a Southern Living magazine the other day. I didn't know that Southern Living was available in San Jose, but I forked over the $4.99.

This is what I have learned about the South by perusing its pages: There are such things as "icebox pies," people in the South insist that different areas of the South are actually different from each other (evidently, Savannah, Ga., is quite a different place than Jackson, Miss., or Jonesborough, Tenn.), and based on the advertisements, Southerners need help staying regular, want bright, white teeth and need to find ways to waterproof their decks, just like us in the Bay Area. Who'd have guessed?

So that's about it. I've got one week left here at the newspapers. I've really enjoyed sharing them with you. I'll be sure to write.

Gregory Watkins promises he will not start wearing white linen suits when he moves to Georgia and is no longer the editor of the Almaden Resident.

Gregory Watkins, the editor of the Almaden Resident, can be reached at 408.200.1066 or at gwatkins@community-newspapers.com.