• Originally published June 10, 2009 at midnight, updated June 10, 2009 at midnight

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings..."

- Lewis Carroll

This is my last "News to Me" column.

It's a tough thing to give up, conversing with you three times a week for the past 19 years on the pages of the Victoria Advocate, but I like to tell myself, over and over again, to bear in mind the wise thought of Dr. Seuss: "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

You have given me so many smiles over these two decades that I cannot begin to thank you enough. Even when you hated what I wrote and let me know, I was happy that I had touched you somehow.

And when your words were kind, a handful of them could put me on Cloud Nine for days at a time.

Some things were accomplished through this little column, but I was always just the information purveyor. You did all the hard work.

Together, we traveled a lot of places, and shared a lot of emotions - pride in our country and the men and women who defend it, sadness at the loss of some person whose legacy was an inspiration, happiness at some local hero who saved another's life or property, or nostalgia at revisiting some historic event on its anniversary.

Once, we collected money to build a small monument to two kids who were lost in a fire. Sometimes, we paid tribute to the passing on of special people - a former Victoria mayor, a local World War II hero, and even the first American astronaut to blast off into space.

Quite often, you were kind enough to accompany me as I traveled back in time and space and shared moments in my own life.

The words written here truly did cover the range "of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings." But when that old Walrus of Lewis Carroll said, "The time has come to talk of many things ..." it was a long time ago. And times do change.

The first person I'd like to thank is my wife Pam, the love of my life, who was always gracious enough to tell me when someone liked my stuff, and who always stood up and fiercely defended me when they thought it was junk.

I would like to thank Mr. John Roberts and Mrs. Kay McHaney, my bosses for a long, long time, for giving me the opportunity to lead the Advocate newsroom as managing editor and executive editor until health concerns forced my semi-retirement more than three years ago. And thank you, Mr. Vince Reedy, former associate editor, for being my friend, my mentor, and the finest gentlemen I've ever known.

It was truly my privilege to work with so many talented and dedicated people. I can't begin to name them all without leaving some special ones out, so I won't try.

But, I'd also like to say it was definitely a privilege to work for the best newspaper readers in the world -- that's you guys out there.

It was Aug. 15, 1963, when I reported for my first day of work at a newspaper, The Houston Post. John Kennedy was still in the White House, the Cuban Missile Crisis was only a year behind us, and the Cold War was always threatening to get hotter.

It's hard to believe my career spanned the last months of Mr. Kennedy, and then Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton, W. Bush and Obama. When I put it like that, I feel gratitude for my longevity, and for all of you.

From Houston to Colorado and finally to Victoria, the cool autumns turned to frosty winters, then flowery springtimes gave way to sweltering summers. It was on a blazing hot July 16, 1990, that I stepped into the Advocate newsroom for the first time. I had a message to go and see Morris Roberts, the publisher.

"Jim," he said, "We brought you here to do a job. Do it well, and I promise you you'll be like family."

Regretfully, Mr. Roberts passed away only seven months after that. But so many times over my years here, thanks to his son and daughter, I did feel like family, as time and again, both professionally and personally, they showed me so much kindness.

The good thing about leaving the newspaper I have loved for such a long time is that it is in very good hands. The newsroom right now is more richly diverse than it has ever been, and the talent pool is unbelievable - a mixture of great veterans and gifted newcomers.

It has been my habit to begin my columns with a quotation that I admire. And sometimes I end with one, too. Maybe that's because better writers than I have said things so much better than I ever could.

One that I recently came across is from "Annie." It says simply, "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard."

And lastly, there's a hauntingly beautiful song by Madonna, in which she looks back and relishes the memory of her youth, that seems appropriate here:

Live and learn, well the years they flew, and we never knew, we were foolish then;

We would never tire, and that little fire is still alive in me. It will never go away.

Can't say goodbye to yesterday.

Well, that just about says it all. I've loved my yesterdays with all of you. And now, it's time to enjoy my tomorrows.

Goodbye.

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