persistent properties

[Ken in Nashua]

Folks,

Does anyone know about this kind of thing???

I got properties... and yes I like to initialize my stuff. Question is where 
and will initialization interfere if my properties are persistent.

So far I got these...

    @SetupRender
    public void setupRender()
    {
        itemsPerPage = 10;
        tableColumns = 3;
    }    

But everytime page cycles thru my persistent properties get clobbered back to 
what this initializes them to. And everything gets whacked back to what 
setupRender says.

Any help is appreciated.

I would like to initialize my properties once so the page cycle can do its 
thing without initialization getting under feet.
Ken