As Time Goes By

For a great deal of the first decade of the 21st century I had the opportunity to report on so many wonderful events and people of the East End of Long Island.

Because paper print journalism is a "downward trending" industry the quality of reporting in that medium is not what it use to be, with a mantra of trying to do more with less dragging down the quality of the writing. Contest writing and young interns are not the best ways to inform the East End public. The electronic media on the other hand is now growing hourly with blogs, posts, and updates. So I am choosing to leave the downward trending area of paper print journalism and aim at the upward trending future of blogs, etc.

When a corporation chose to not spend a few hundred dollars to not preserve the two thousand plus articles I wrote about the East End, I was sad to see some good work disappear from the web forever. Small minded decisions to aim limited resources elsewhere was most disappointing. Good pieces on historical local icons where vaporized at the push of a button due to non payment in a bankruptcy. That will never happen here on Patch. This summer I will reconstruct some of my best work on the icons who shaped the East End into the honest hard working god-graced area it is. The posts will be positive feel good stories to offset a world that at the moment can use such stuff. I will start off this weekend with a series called T.J. Clemente's 50 best Traditions of the Hamptons.

When I last did such a list I was guided by corporate masters who made me appease advertisers at the cost of integrity. However this time around I plan on putting the brightest honest light on the best this area has produced, and hopefully create a few chuckles, and belly laughs. I was humbled by the ample volume and quality of old timers who did it right, got it right, and continue to do it right. Since I did the list some icons have died while other businesses have ended. Nothing is forever except hopefully the beauty of the East End.