Dear Readers—particularly you longtime, faithful friends out there,

Remember me?

We wore hats: the bigger, the crazier, the better. Wanda Horn and I came up with the idea to wear hats back in 1989. Our seed dreams of creating a niche magazine called inRegister germinated and began to plant deep roots in the Baton Rouge community. Donning hats was our marketing ploy. When we attended events or called upon people, they may not remember our names, but they associated the “hat ladies” with the magazine.

It worked! Wearing hats became contagious among our staff, as they joined us making the rounds to benefit galas, weddings, debutante and Mardi Gras balls. We were a close-knit bunch, gathering to read our horoscopes each morning and regaling each other with tales of events and personalities from the day before. We had an open-door policy at the office back then, and so many interesting people came by to tell their stories. Those were different times, yet some things remain the same: inRegister has always been about the people of Baton Rouge. We loved featuring their exploits, and they loved us right back.

Remember when handwritten notes were a sign of good manners? We received notes from governors, bishops, coaches, and even from the late Chris Owens. We attended events where I knew we were at a special place in history: standing amid a crowd of his hometown Franklinians at Gov. Mike Foster’s inauguration in 20-degree weather, interviewing Lindy Boggs and getting to tour her home on Bourbon Street, meeting Ernest Gaines at his False River home, and sidling up to C.B. “Doc” Pennington at his favorite hangout to extract a few quotes from the generous benefactor who hated interviews. Celebrities and philanthropists were just part of the mix. So many hardworking volunteers behind the scenes gave us valuable insight into what makes this city so altruistic.

You know the old saying. We worked hard, and we played hard. We laughed a lot, but we cried too—especially when Wanda Horn was suddenly taken from us in 1997. Those she helped train would step up and carry on—for there are always more story seeds to sow, more personality flowers to pick, more magazine bouquets to assemble. And in that vein, the pruning shears have been passed, from Wanda and me to Jackie Bartkiewicz, Kelly Hurtado, Ashley Sexton Gordon, Kelli Bozeman, and now to Riley Bourgeois.

These days, I’m just a reader of inRegister, like you. My hats are all stored in boxes—if they could only talk, right? It’s hard for me to believe it’s been 35 years since Wanda and I watched the presses roll on our first issue through tear-stained eyes. We were exhausted, yes, but we were proud too. I know she shares that same sense of fulfillment I do seeing inRegister still thriving today.

My hat is off to everyone who has had a hand in keeping inRegister alive!

Here’s to 35 more years,

Chris Russo Blackwood
Co-founder, publisher & editor, 1989-2009