“Hello, I am Pam Parker from the Erie Occasions-Information.” I’ve proudly declared that so many occasions that it will likely be laborious to not say it every day.
Tuesday will likely be my final day, and after I thought of the place to write down a goodbye column, it appeared becoming to do it within the place I began and the place I revealed greater than 1,000 articles and columns over time.
The Erie Occasions-Information gave me the privilege to write down about houses in Home to House, in Lake Erie LifeStyle and on GoErie.com’s Wednesday On the Market.
I used to be Pam Eckert and a contract author after I began this column — Homefile — however I used to be higher referred to as the “Home Girl,” a moniker I’ll all the time cherish. Ted Benson, a former promoting supervisor, began this part, and it stays a profitable actual property publication on this area.
Writing about houses and actual property tendencies launched me to owners, Realtors, architects and builders. I nonetheless keep in mind the primary time I wrote a few million-dollar house. That was uncommon within the outdated days. Proper now, there are 10 houses in that value vary, and I’ve written about most of them this yr or after they had been beforehand listed.
Whereas the posh houses are one thing to see, the house flips and intelligent renovations on common homes reveal simply how ingenious Erie of us will be. HGTV has had an enormous affect on us, and it favorably impacts house costs and reduces time in the marketplace.
Blazing into ladies’s points
Once I began freelancing for Her Occasions, it was a startup journal that Marnie Mead and Heather Cass had molded right into a profitable publication acknowledged by Editor & Writer, a commerce journal that has been masking newspaper happenings for extra than a century.
I used to be fortunate sufficient to have the wonder beat, and for dozens of articles I sampled providers that took me from Brazilian waxing to hair extensions, make-up testing and make-me-look-younger procedures that had a bit of little bit of “ouch” issue. I’ve had Botox, beauty fillers, pores and skin tightening, laser therapies and physique sculpting. Transfer over Kardashians, I obtained this.
Readers needed to find out about wholesome experiences, so I accomplished cardiovascular assessments. I experimented with yoga and tai-chi, found acupuncture and loved wraps and massages. I additionally discovered to play pickleball with some women who I now think about mates.
As soon as I turned the editor of Her Occasions, we continued to push what Marnie and Heather began. We saved ladies’s points and equality within the forefront each month. Each March, lengthy earlier than I got here on board, ladies of the newsroom embraced Ladies’s Historical past Month, however one in every of my proudest accomplishments will likely be as mission supervisor of the annual March publication of unimaginable tales about native ladies’s achievements that coated plenty of pages in our newspaper and on-line.
We launched readers to feminine welders, auto mechanics and a whole group of center schoolers in Millcreek who took up pc coding as an exercise.
At one level, we had greater than three articles per week about extraordinary ladies and ladies. We additionally included recommendation columns from native specialists on work points, parenting and profession development.
Styling Lake Erie LifeStyle
I got here on board in 2008 and our workforce raised a nine-month journal from a child to a full-blown teenager. Working with a workers of freelance writers from a number of states, Canada and even England, this month-to-month journal hit 96 pages one month. Now in it is 14th yr, it has aged fairly effectively. It did not even want Botox.
By means of all of it, I have been a part of a rare work household — a number of the smartest and gifted folks I’ve ever met. The primary assembly I had with your entire newsroom left me with one thought: These journalists might run a small nation.
Certainly one of my key takeaways of this life at ETN is the sheer pleasure of telling somebody’s story in print, on-line, in movies, on Fb Dwell occasions and with blogs. One other will likely be working with folks of all ages who write and design for us, from youngsters to retirees. This job taught me that mentoring rewards the mentor as a lot because the mentee, and it has nothing to do with age. I discovered some actual life abilities from gifted designers and writers who’re half my age.
I’ve had nice bosses and nice recollections.
The following chapter will certainly have a very good story in it, or perhaps a rustic tune, one thing I typically stated within the newsroom. My Erie Occasions-Information id may fade away, however it can give new life to my ID as spouse to fabulous hubby Kim Parker, mother/stepmom to 6 nice children and their spouses and GramPam to 5 fantastic grandkids with two extra on the best way.
Thanks for studying all these years.
