Senate Journal: Page 843: Wednesday, April 9, 2003
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 22 when I was first elected
and 23 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. To this day, it still amazes me that the people of
Dubuque were so willing to take a chance on someone this young. 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—and 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. 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 100 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. 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 businesses, 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.
1968, some of you might recall, was the year of the constitutional amendments—
annual sessions were approved, annual salaries and expenses, restructuring and
resizing of the legislature to 100 members of the House and 50 members of the Senate
and home rule approved for our cities and towns that year. We acted quickly in those
days, implemented the major changes mandated by our fellow Iowans, and became
known nationally as one of the most progressive legislatures in the country. As some of
you might recall, I quickly earned the well-deserved reputation as someone who would
enter nearly any debate for almost any reason, single-handedly adding days to the
length of each session.
© 2003 Cornell College and
League of Women Voters of Iowa
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