The Campbell Reporter
Columns
It's a homecoming of sorts for Campbell editor
It's a homecoming of sorts for Campbell editor
Boy, it's great to be back home again! OK, so I don't really remember much about my time when I was actually living in Campbell--in fact, any memories I do have of that period of my life are only of the pictures scattered through a scrapbook that's now more than a half-century old.
You see, my parents lived in Campbell when I was born, and I spent the first four years of my life growing up in a modest home on Robin Lane off Sunnyoaks Avenue.
I bring that up now because I have recently taken over as the editor of the Campbell Reporter, and I don't want readers to think that I'm some stranger moving in to take over their hometown newspaper. I have roots in this town that go back 58 years, when the Orchard City was indeed covered with orchards.
I'm slipping into the very large shoes of my predecessor, Moryt Milo--which isn't to say that Moryt has abnormally large feet (though at one of our off-site staff meetings she did step through a hot tub cover and go feet-first into the not-so-hot water). No, what I mean is that Moryt had a solid foundation in the community and was well respected as the editor of the Campbell Reporter. We wish her well in her new endeavors and we will all miss her (though I'm pretty sure I can expect regular calls from her so that she can critique my work).
But enough about Moryt, and more about me and my lifelong affiliation with this community.
Of course, there were those first four years on Robin Lane (yep, that was me with the curly blond hair on the tricycle leading the Fourth of July parade in about 1953, and my mom has the pictures to prove it). My family moved to Los Gatos in 1954 (traitors!), and as a 4-year-old I had no choice but to follow.
I still made many trips to Campbell with my dad from our home just off Winchester Road to visit Winchester Hardware, owned by family friend and neighbor Jack Arends; to pick up some of those fabulous jelly-filled doughnuts at the Copper Kettle; and to dump trash from our yard at the landfill located just about where Pruneyard is today (OK, so I may be a block or two off on that one, but give me a break: I was only about 8 years old at the time).
I road a Los Gatos school bus to Campbell to play a Thanksgiving Day football game against Chuck Hawthorne and the Buccaneers in the fall of 1966 (they beat us 25-0), and for a couple of swim meets against Campbell and Westmont (yes, they both beat us, too).
In the fall of 1967, I attended college in town at UCLA. No, not that one--I attended the University of Campbell at Latimer Avenue, otherwise known as West Valley Junior College.
Yes, around that time, West Valley was located in the old Campbell Grammar School at the corner of Winchester and Campbell Avenue. Most of our classes were conducted in portable buildings before the community college moved to its present location in Saratoga.
It was only a few years later that I started my career in journalism, and I worked for many years as the sports editor of the old Campbell Press. I will always remember fondly the day I sat in our Campbell office, listening intently to a radio broadcast from Williamsport, Pa. It was August 1976, and the announcer was detailing the highlights of the Little League World Series championship game when the all-stars from Campbell played a team from Japan.
Since I started my career in 1971, I've worked for many different newspapers in many different cities, including serving for a number of years as the sports editor of the Campbell Reporter. Now as I become its editor, I look forward to the challenge of bringing you the news of your community each and every week.
As I said before, I know I have some big shoes to fill and will do my best to fill them. But as I take this job, I know one thing for sure: No editor in the history of this newspaper has ever led a Fourth of July parade riding a tricycle--not even Moryt Milo.
It's great to be home again.
Want to talk? Give me a call at 408.354.3110, ext. 31, or drop me an e-mail to dsparrer@community-newspapers.com.