House Journal: Page 1041: Wednesday, April 9, 2003
did make the arguments quite often. From that point on Cal and I used to slip each
other a fish when we got tired of listening to what the other was saying.
Cal, I haven't said a word yet and you're already giving me a fish.
This is a very heady place to stand. I am deeply honored to be here. One of your
previous speakers from a few years ago mentioned to me the other day when he heard I
was going to speak that it was a great opportunity. All the old folks start stumbling
back in here limping down the isle and reminiscing about how great things were. And
I said to myself, you know, I'm one of those old folks. And I'm not limping yet.
Although by the time this session is over I might well be.
It is an honor honestly to be here, to be asked to be a speaker to this assembly. When
Senator Drake invited me several weeks ago I assumed it was just to give a few
comments at the luncheon. I had no idea until later that it was an invitation to speak
to this joint session. And I was first humbled and secondly scared because there is,
frankly, nothing more petrifying than to attempt to speak to former colleagues and
peers. Especially when I realize that those so many years ago, we all may have been
colleagues, but I was far from a peer.
As some of you might recall I was the ripe old age of twenty-two when I was first
elected and twenty-three when I took that first oath of office. I was so wet behind the
ears; I didn't even know I was wet behind the ears. And to this day, it still amazes me
that the people of Dubuque were so willing to take a chance on someone this young.
And not only young, but Dubuque had the reputation as being somewhat provincial
and I wasn't even a native. Yet, they sent me here anyway. Probably to get me out of
town.
I spent the six shortest years of my life in this beautiful building. Short because the
time just flew by. This building where the past meets up with the present and always
seems to create reasons for hope for the future.
My memories of those years are too many and for some, probably too boring to relate to
you in total, but I'd like to try to share some of those thoughts with you anyway. And
share them in no particular order.
When I first arrived here I was so naive, I actually thought I could live well on the pay
that we were given. Forty dollars a day including expenses for a hundred days, not a
day more and one round trip home a year at ten cents a mile. It was the best reason
that I could think of for being from Dubuque. A 400 mile round trip equaled forty
dollars and it was like receiving another day of session pay free. I soon realized how
poor I was and when the session ended, the realities became clearer.
As a Catholic schoolteacher my job was gone as of January and I had to find other
work. We adjourned, if I remember rightly that year, May 23, 1969. The earliest exit
of our years here and two days later our twin daughters were born. And life changed
again. But as tough as we thought things were then and to our own circumstances,
they were nothing compared to the problems that others who came those same years
faced in their own situations. People who came here with successful business only to
see their client base erode as the weeks of absence from home began to take a toll on
their business. Some actually lost their companies in just a few years of serving the
same people that they were trying to represent and serving them, frankly, for peanuts.
© 2003 Cornell College and
League of Women Voters of Iowa
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