Most writers would prefer to write about other people, or trends, or issues, than themselves, and I’m in that league, for sure. But since this is the first Shuttle with me officially at the helm, I suppose an introduction (or reintroduction) is in order.

I’ve been a Weavers Way employee for just shy of eight years, and a member for 10 ½. I worked in two stores (Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill), and three departments (deli, bulk and grocery) before the Shuttle became a bigger part of my schedule and I traded in my work boots for a laptop and an office chair. So I may have sliced you some lunchmeat, showed you where the lentils or pine nuts live, or carried groceries to your car somewhere along the line. I’ve also done demos in the Hill and Ambler, and oh, yeah, I was the board administrator for a year and change.  

Yes, I went to school for this. I got my bachelor’s in journalism in 1985, when it was considered practical to seek out a career in newspapers. Many of my Syracuse University classmates moved on from the business years ago, and I’m kind of tickled that I got back into it when I did. I’ll be forever grateful to Mary Sweeten for rolling the dice and giving me a chance to write for the paper after not having published anything in decades. I’m also indebted to our shoppers, members and advertisers who have kept the Shuttle going. As retro jobs go, this isn’t as cool as running your own record store, but still.

I live in Northwest Philly with my husband and daughter, who will be going off to college in the fall. My son, Phil, will be 25 in a few months and worked as a cashier in the Chestnut Hill store for about a year.

Mary who retired did an excellent job of organizing the Shuttle into the fine-looking paper it is now, and it’ll be challenging enough to keep to that standard. I’ve got no big changes planned, but I also know publications have lives of their own, as do co-ops. Let’s all fasten our seat belts, and hope the ride is reasonably smooth.

Whaddaya say — enough self-revelation for now? With any luck, we’ll learn more about each other, individually and collectively, in issues to come.

Catch you in the pages next month.