It was October of 1972 when I found myself uprooted, lonely, scared - and half a dozen other emotions - living on Ridgewood Road in South Orange with six surly offspring. We had a lovely old colonial with four floors, one phone per floor. Unfortunately, the phone never rang, nor did the doorbell...

In desperation I wrote a letter to the local paper in which I asked if there was any interest in the community relative to starting a Newcomers Club. I had hoped my letter would be published as a letter to the editor, but instead the response involved an in-depth interview, which appeared on the front page and generated incredible response. The telephone began to ring, sweet sound…

Before I knew it, we had almost more social life than I could handle. Though I did not realize it at the time, we were also forging strong and lasting friendships.

Pat Shelffo, Founder

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