It was just one month more than seven years ago that my first Historical Notes column was published in The Chapel Hill News.

As pointed out then, I was not initiating a new column by a Chapel Hill Historical Society member but renewing one that had an earlier run from 1979 to 1987. Dr. Ralph M. Watkins, a retired UNC physician, was its leading contributor.

About three-fourths of Watkins' columns were about Chapel Hill businesses and families and early UNC, and the rest were about noted Hillsborough and Orange County families and topics.

Some background experiences encouraged me to dip a toe and ultimately a whole foot into a mini-career of a volunteer newspaper columnist. I had assembled the scattered columns of Watkins and others, copied them on bond paper for durability, compiled and added a valuable index with the help of my daughter, Katie Eyre Sharpe, and had them bound in hard covers. I also did about two dozen oral history taped interviews that are now in the Historical Society files along with newspaper clippings that I have added systematically over the past 10 years.

Our family home was for 30 years at 619 E. Franklin St., in the big house bought from the John Umstead estate in 1970 next door to the Horace Williams house, in the heart of what became the town's first formal historic district. Daily long walks with my dogs made me familiar with many houses and families that were later featured in my columns. My wife, Olga, and I sold the Franklin Street house in 2000 and moved into a 1923 bungalow on McCauley Street.

I was active in the Historical Society from the early 1970s and was a charter member of both the Preservation Society and Chapel Hill Museum. My wife's 15-year career as a Realtor and appraiser helped deepen my contacts with the town's business community.

It took only a few months in 2000 to fall into a monthly work routine for each column. My column was allotted space on the third Sunday edition of each month. Collecting published data, conducting interviews, locating useful photographs and writing the column usually spread across numerous parts of days in a three-week stretch. Keeping my text within a maximum two single-spaced pages usually meant reduction as a final step.

There was never a shortage of worthwhile subjects to investigate and write about. I always took special pleasure in individuals, couples and families who were able to overcome obstacles to reach goals and their own potential. The way in which so many black residents achieved success in spite of slavery and later social segregation and low incomes was always a joy to spell out in my columns.

It's been such a sparkling seven years and my desk at home is cluttered with materials about stories I would love dearly to tackle. But my body tells me it's time to retire. I'm 86 and my energy has been reduced over the past two years by several major diseases of older age that are being held in check by daily medications. My balance has become suspect, leading to 10 bad falls during 2007. Long walks are a challenge and a sturdy walking cane has become my companion when I take them. Olga, my wife of 62 years, agrees that it's time for me to bow out.

Piles of materials that beg to be put into final order and transferred to the Historical Society archives dominate all of the space in my second-floor study and spill over into the adjacent bedroom. My wife's complaint is that should I be removed abruptly from the scene, she would have to resort to a shovel and a large dumpster to clear away the accumulation.

Prodded by such a dire possibility, I plan to launch a joint attack on the clutter this month, with initial priority on getting my columns into printed book form. Plans are also under discussion to place my writings on the Historical Society Web site.

One thing that I shall not miss in retirement is my heavy-fingered struggles with the computer keyboard, which have caused endless stress in the last day or two before my monthly filing deadline. Fortunately, family members and friends never failed to rescue me on such short notice.

I am grateful to Ted Vaden, who approved of my signing on as a volunteer columnist of The Chapel Hill News, to Don Evans for his seven years of editorial patience and friendship in handling my monthly column, and to other newspaper personnel who made my seven years among them such a happy and educational experience.

I am grateful for the warm reception so many of you have given my monthly output and am pleased that a group of Historical Society members and The Chapel Hill News will join forces to keep Historical Notes alive from now on.