Goodbye Bayville, Hello Toms River

Shortly before noon yesterday I walked out of the building that has been my work home since 1979, got in my car and drove away just like I’ve done more than 7500 other times.

However unlike those other times I’m not going back as Monday was my last day at 1015 Route 9 in Bayville and today I’m writing from Toms River.

Yesterday was both surreal and bittersweet as I emptied my office and threw away item after item that I had collected over the years. Pictures, plaques, papers, some of which I didn’t even remember were tossed although many have made their way to my new office where I’ll find a place for them or put them in storage.

It is amazing what you can collect over the years and each item produces a memory and often a smile. Pictures of co-workers who have long since moved on, my old teammates from the WOBM No-Stars, our ringer-laden basketball team that played almost 100 games for charity, newspaper clippings, you name it. They were all reminders that the man who began working in that building at the age of 23 has seen better days.

However as the saying goes “when one door closes another opens” and this morning I opened the door at our new complex in downtown Toms River. For the first time I drove north to work not south and my new commute should allow me some extra sleep each morning.

Instead of a six mile commute that normally took around 13 minutes I now drive about 2.6 miles and it took me just 7 minutes this morning. I know those of you who spend 3-4 hours a day commuting back and forth to work are now cursing me out.

The commute isn’t the only plus as I have a nice big office with a large flat screen TV and I’m located right across from the coffee pot. As you’ve probably heard from others our new facility is indeed spacious and being in downtown Toms River I can walk to a number of places for something to eat and don’t have to drive my car to get the morning newspaper.

However a part of remains in that cramped building in Bayville which was where Ocean County’s first radio station began broadcasting on March 1, 1968. It was often far from “state of the art” and some called it a dump but it was our dump and
all the good things (and bad) in my adult life happened while I worked there.

However as we all all know the only constant in life is change and today I begin what I hope will be a change for the better. Goodbye Bayville,hello Toms River.