 One, two, one. One, two, one. One, two, one. One, two, one. One, two, one. Oh, okay. Two, one, two, one, two. Well, that's coming through here, fine. I did. I took them both, yeah. You gave them to me. Ready? Oh, I heard that she's something out here. It's always really nice to hear about this. It's amazing. It's amazing. Wow. It's amazing. He's very gentle. Is George here? So I'm excited to see them. Oh, yeah. I want Pat to make sure he doesn't know they're going to be here. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. I'd like to have you all make a give-away of a round of applause to our senator Mr. Lady. Fortunately she's the expert. It is all down. My name is George Ebson and I am Chairman of the Monthly Historical Society and I would like to welcome this schoolhouse for an afternoon with Senator Patrick Legi and I'd also like to welcome those that are watching on live streaming from our friends at Orca. I had an email this morning from an old Liberty Street neighbor who will be watching from Colorado and we would like to introduce some other Legis that are here. Jane Legi, the senator sister in law. Mary Legi, the senator sister. Much younger sister. Much younger sister and Marcel Legi's soulmate spouse and co-conspirator for 61 years. Introduced is Maxine Leary who is a senator's teacher. Maxine, stand up and wave to the crowd. There you go. And today for a year. Wonderful. We're dying. Wonderful. I think his moderator today is Diane Derby. Diane served for six years as best secretary to Senator Geffords. Sure. I guess. I can talk louder. Yeah, talk louder. There we go. And ten years. Diane served for ten years for Senator Legi as his local representative out of the month of your office and we all know her now as senior editor at Vermont Digger. So we want to welcome Diane as our moderator. With that I will turn the meeting over to Diane. Well, thank you. And thanks to George Edson and everyone at the Historical Society for pulling this together. It's really great to see such a crowd and it's really important that the Historical Society just does great work to keep us all reminded of what came before us and inform us on what's to come in the future. So thank you, George. I don't think Senator Legi needs much introduction. 48 years in the Senate. I think everybody's familiar with his Senate career undoubtedly but we've really come here today to talk about what his life was like growing up in Montpelier. And I know he doesn't need many prompts but I've got a few prompts of my own here for him. Keep the conversation lively. And again, I'm not here as a journalist today asking tough questions. I'm here just in my cell role as having been fortunate enough to be his staff member for 10 years and just to have a nice fun conversation. I've promised him it would be fun. So I have to follow through on that. So for those who have read the book you might be familiar with the road taken. His opening chapter starts with a scene out of the state house when he's four years old being a little hellion riding his tricycle all over. And I don't want to steal his thunder so I'll have him tell that story but I've asked him to start there and walk us through what the early memories are in growing up on State Street in Montpelier. Well thank you Diane. George, thank you. George Hudson's parents were dear friends of my parents and it brings back memories just seeing him and hearing his voice. Mary and I and our late brother John grew up 136 State Street and almost diagonally across from the State House. So back in the days you didn't even lock your doors. You walked around everywhere. Everybody knew everybody else. And one of my buddies and I decided let's go explore the State House. We'd been there with my parents but we had our tricycles and we went up and went in the side door and nobody's around. So we dragged the tricycles up to the second floor and we're in a nice room, found out later as the Senate Chambers. And we said let's reach down the halls. So we reached down the halls. Here's an open door. We go barreling through it, whim up against this desk which was 27 feet high at least to look to us. And a man leans over and goes, yes. And we said, hi, are you the governor? I am. Now get out. But he did give us some candy on the way out. And Mary, you can imagine the reaction of our parents. We got home and I was all excited and I told my parents about this. They did not see the humor in it. And we weren't allowed to go in the State House. I don't know what to do about it. Our current governor, I was in there to meet with him not long after he became governor. I was a U.S. Senator. I come in and he says, it's a different desk. Don't bring your tricycle in here. So beyond that, what other memories do you have on State Street itself as a kid? And what was it like growing up in a family? You had the family business, the Leahy Press, and the back of the building growing up. Maybe a few stories about those memories. It was interesting. We rented out rooms to legislators. My mother did help with the bills, but they're not here all these stories when they were in the house, which is wonderful. We rented out another apartment upstairs. But you can walk through the kitchen door into the Leahy Press. And the beauty of that, I learned to read at a very early age. One of the most formative things in my life. Can you hear this okay back there? Yeah, I can never tell from here. It was formative things. I had my first library card at the College of Harvard before I was five, and that's because I started to learn to read so quickly in the Leahy Press. We always had a concert stream. My parents had a concert stream of friends. We learned from them and hear all these stories and the history. My dad told the stories of the 27th Flood and how he was there with his mother and his sister long before my parents had met. And it moved up to the second floor of 136th Stage 3 because the 27th Flood was coming down Stage 3. And the men came up in a rowboat with a huge camera to the second floor. And Dad opened the window, let the guy into the place, tied the rowboat to the cast iron radiator. Thank you. And hiked him up onto the roof, passed up. The irony is I have a book with me and I was glancing through it on the way over here. Marcel was driving. And there is a picture he took from that window. Wow. And you can see the house next door and what was the National Light Billion, the state office book, picture taken from up there. And, you know, you'd hear these stories and then, of course, later on, we had Irene and that brought us to our home in Middlesex the next day. It was a beautiful day. It flew around the state, saw everything that was going on and saw on the phone from the helicopter to Washington seeking aid for the... And I want to go too long, but I'll just close one thing. When this last flood came, and I'm watching on the news, and in buildings of different companies at the time, but buildings where I used to deliver newspapers, the Montpey or Argus afternoon paper. I didn't want a morning paper. But buildings where I delivered it, here the businesses in them destroyed. And I was literally in tears. I have never lost, even in the Senate and everywhere else we've lived, I've never really lost that feeling of growing up in Montpey. And I went to high school with this building, and it did my sister, she's much smarter, and our brother was really smart. So we want to talk a little about how your early experiences shaped your career in the Senate. And your father was a real historian, knew everything, told you stories of the state house, you met the governor when you were four years old. How did these early experiences kind of shape you to get you involved in politics? I learned a couple things from my parents. My father had to leave school about 12 or 13 years old when my grandfather was a stone carver and Barry Patrick J. Leahy died. And dad had to go out and support his mother and sister. And it was a different time. I've never forgotten the stories. There'd be signs that say, no Irish need to apply. Or if you weren't smart enough to figure that out, no Catholic need to apply. But dad became a printer and eventually won the best in the area and started his own printing business, Leahy Press, which is still there. But he regretted not being able to finish school, but he became a self-taught historian. He read everything. He had almost a photographic memory of history. He'd get the newspaper and just devour them and talk about it. And so much so that kids, when they were in college and they had a history exam coming, they'd call Grandpa Leahy and double check these answers. And that influenced me so much. Now my Italian mother, our grandparents emigrated to Vermont from Italy. She was born here, grew up speaking Italian. And that certainly influenced the feeling of diversity and why you need it. But the history, and probably the thing without going too far off here, cherished the most. And my parents lived for a number of years after I got elected to the Senate. And I could bring them to all these places that they'd read about. And I remember my dad holding handwritten notes, not copies, but the real ones, Abraham Lincoln had written down in the archives in Washington. That was a joy. But all the way through, I always felt I was kind of paying back what I had because one player you could walk everywhere, you could go anywhere. I had the time to leave our bicycles on the porch. It was a different world. People helped each other. They drove down here, I think, where the fires were. And, Diane, I can't tell you when you called me to tell me about the fires, how choked up I got hearing that. But some of the buildings along here, I can remember my parents going to the grocery store. And the kids would be in the car. We'd pull up to, obviously, an area where people of limited means were living. And my dad opening the trunk, taking a bag of groceries up to the second floor, the rickety stairways outside, knocking on the door. People would come to the door and hand them the groceries. They'd say, thank you. They'd leave and get back in the car. Never told us who the people were. He just said if people were in need, help them. And it meant a lot. You touched a little bit on your library card at the age of four. Maybe you also talk in your book a little bit about being in the supermarket, looking at comic books. You had only sight in one eye. And so reading became your passion. And maybe tell us a little bit what did the Kellogg Hubbard Library look like when you were a four-year-old? The Leahy Wing wasn't built yet. So he can say that. I couldn't do that. I couldn't do that the age of four. Born basically blind in one eye. It's like you had severe macular degeneration in one eye. So sports are a difficult thing because of lack of depth perception. And that brought about the accident I had last year walking upstairs. But reading, I only needed one eye. And here's why individuals are important. Do any of you remember Mrs. Holbrook? Okay, I see a few hands going. Good, thank you. I'm not that old. But Mrs. Holbrook was the librarian. The librarian was in the basement. And it was very, very small. And I went to, I said, Michael's grade school up on the top of the hill. I walked down the hill, go in the library. She said, well, Patrick, did you read the book you had a few days ago? Yes, I did. Tell me about it. And I would tell her, she said, good. Now here's one by Mark Twain. You might want to read her. But then I was, you know, like, first, second grade. And by the end of third grade, I'd read all Twain, all Dickens, all these others. And history books, and she just kept encouraging me, read these. And it was so enjoyable. And I know that when one of the floods here in Montpeyre, when that was still there, people showed up from around, say, just ran in and grabbed all the books they could out the shelves, just ran out through in the cars. And to save them, otherwise they'd be destroyed. The front was over there. They brought out, every single book came back plus about 20% more. Now, wouldn't I, I've always felt that that was one of the most important things in my life. And my parents encouraged me to read. And after I got in the Senate, I couldn't forget about that place. The nice thing about being on appropriations committee, you get to determine where money goes. And they now have a beautiful new wing for the children's library. And well, I commend the architects to everybody else who put wood and stone all together, but you can be somebody who has a reading problem or somebody who's reading several grades ahead of themselves, and they have programs for you. Our grandchildren, when they had come up to the farm during the summer, they'd just go down. They'd go down there and load up on books and we'd bring them back. We've got at least one six-year-old in the audience who wants to hear a little about your Batman history. Couldn't be a senator like he talked without talking about Batman. I did read Batman comics and 10 cents. Finally, what the 12 says, we would go in. I'd be there the first one at the store when the new came out. I tended to remember everything I read. And I do recall when I was in the Senate talking with people from D.C. comics about legislation and something was said. I said, no, no. In 1947, in our spring edition, about page five such-and-such happened. And they thought, yeah, we humor the guy. I said, oh, yes, Senator, of course you're right. What the hell is he talking about? Never happened. Go back to the archives and find me. Go back. That's exactly what happened. One thing led to another. I worked with them on a very powerful, I speak of a country that I'm Batman comic because I was trying to ban the export of landmines from the U.S. No country had done that. And when I started off, I could count about 12 votes in the Senate. Among the things we used was this Batman comic book and several of us worked on it, including debating for two days the ending. It's a short story. Somebody worked for a Wayne industry in a combat area. Parents killed. A little girl was captured. Batman wouldn't save her. In the last panel, the helicopter was coming to pick him up, and she said, look at the shiny toy. He said, no, and then boom. And she's destroyed. And the reason we debated on that, and I went to every single senator across the political spectrum, I said, read that. And they said, okay, just leave us all over here. And they said, that's a terrible ending. I said, there are no good endings in landmines. Ourself as a medical surgical nurse, she's been in war zones and in the operating rooms and in the surgery places where they're having to re-amputate and to put prosthetics. So there's nothing happy. It's mostly civilians. And we passed the bay at 100 to zero. The only controversial bill for 10 years. So I like Batman. And the kids seemed to like it. I did reading hour, I volunteered reading hour one day, which was easy to come from our home, Middlesex on Saturday, jeans and sweatshirt and somebody hands me a note that Batman enemies had their pictures in the library. I could not figure out the clues. I need help. I grabbed my phone, and you nearby, girl was a burst smoke in-walks Batman. And you can imagine these four or five, six girls. Well, anyway, long story short, he couldn't figure out the clues, but the children did. And on the way out, he says, I want to thank you children. You're welcome, Mr. Batman. It was fun. So we're going to open it up in a few minutes to questions, but I'm hoping before we do that... I'm getting out of sequence. No, I'm out of sequence. I'm hoping we can back it up a little bit just to get the visuals. What did downtown look like when you were a kid growing up? I talked to Mary a little bit in preparation. She told me a little bit about eating downtown supermarkets. Yeah, I worked in one. You worked in one? I was a meat cutter. Just tell us a little bit about that and the visuals of downtown when you were a kid growing up. That story is no longer there. In fact, there was a fire that destroyed that wing, and then... The city center. Ben and Jerry's. Yeah, the city center building. But it was a part-time job when I was in high school. And I... learned two things. One, I learned how to carve meat. And secondly, I learned... this is hard work. And I had a lot more... I think I had respect anyway for people working sores like that, but I had even more realizing how hard the work was to do it right. And the difference in people coming to the store, something very nice, some not so nice. But you learn... you learn that, and you learn... you should treat everybody with respect. And so it was part of growing up. Most of the stores, we knew the people. We knew the people who ran the stores. I delivered printing there from the lady press. Usually on the way to school, drop off this such-and-such a place. And it was different. You had tunnels, you had all these others. Everybody knew everybody. And... it... I mean... someone delivered this paper. Oh, your mother was just in here. And she forgot this. Be sure to bring it to her. Whatever it might be. It was a... different world there. You... you tended not to judge people. I mean, it was a lot different than with my father. As a 13-year-old, when there were religious prejudices and others, that had diminished substantially. And... I remember... we used to joke about... mom and dad being the Democrats. Well, that's where the Democrats live over there. In that house. But Dean Davis, Mr. Republican, and his president in national life lived across the street. He and his wife would come in and play bridge with my parents at least one night a week. George Edson, who had introduced me, his... father-in-law and mother, Isabel, they would... my parents would play bridge at their house one night. They'd play bridge at ours. You know, everybody... everybody in socialized. And... but helped each other. Said, my mother, where are you going? Where are you going with that food? Well, so-and-so... sick. And... I just thought I might hop out. And... I said, well, who are they? Well, I don't really know them, but their friends are so-and-so. And so... my friend brought them... supper last night. I'm bringing it tonight. And... you know, you grow up in a... in a community like that. That's going to affect you for the rest of your life. No matter what you do. I didn't expect to be a U.S. senator, but it... I tried not to forget the things I learned. And so Montpey has been special. And as Marcel knows, when I watch the... news of the flood here... this year, we sat there in tears. Does Montpey still feel familiar to you, you know, having grown up here, or does it feel different just the landscape, the look of the place? Well, the landscape is much the same. And we... we used to when I had... I had an office here in Montpey as a senator in that... terrible-looking... post-office building. I'm not going to say what I call it, Marcel. I think I've heard about this, yes. Don't... But... we drive back to our home in Middlesex. I usually go up... you know, up the hill and go over past what we call Codyville. And into... into Middlesex in the back, into Middlesex in the back road. It's so much that I always looked like. But the... the people I knew that nowhere near as much. When I grew up in the high school class I was in was only 30 or 40. Is that right, Xie? Just 25 to 30. Just 25 to 30. And the sad thing was that more than 10% of the class was dead within a few months after graduation. Several in an automobile accident. And another one, one of my classmates had got joined the military in the paratroopers and the parachute did not open. Oh. Every time I parachute I thought of that. Well, I think on that note we can open it up for a little Q and A from the audience. We've got Catherine with the microphone here. Oh, or George. Sorry, George. You understand with both Catherine and George, I wanted to really date myself. But Mary and I knew their parents. And they were good people growing up. We'll just bring the microphone over, maybe. Thank you. I do have a question, Senator, but first, are my parents and yours or friends also? I'm Stan Sloan. Is that microphone on? Hold it close. Hold it closer. Okay. And subsequently I work for the congressional research service on international affairs and I work for you and your staff as well. Thank you. But my question, and I delivered the free press, I have my morning routes going up East State Street. I've never been a morning person. No, I wouldn't do it again. So I would rather have the Argus route, no question about that. But my question is what values do you think that you came away from growing up in Montpelier that influenced the way that you were as a U.S. Senator? Because I know that I took a lot of important values that are still important to me today and I'm sure you did as well. I'd like to hear exactly how you see that. Well thank you. It was a good question. I think the values continue at all levels of life. When I was State's Attorney in Chittenden County, I was on call seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Several nights a week I'd be out at two or three o'clock in the morning with a police and I'd see what happened when people did not treat people the way they should. And I thought back to where growing up in Montpelier where people tried to help each other. When I went in the Senate I realized the worst thing could do is to automatically catalog somebody. People talked about that when I was Chair and when I was Vice-Chair of the Appropriations Committee, the close relationship I have with Dick Shelby in Alabama. We're poles apart philosophically. The only thing we have in common is the two of the biggest people in size in the Senate. But we always kept our word to each other. We always worked things out and we always said what's the bottom line going to be to the people who are affected by it? And we were talking about this just the other night when I called Dick just to check on how his wife was doing. So I think these are the things I learned in the fact that came from a small town. People were caused by our first name. They all agreed to see about I saw your sister last week or I saw your cousin or whatever it might be. And you realize this is real life. Maybe the best way to answer is I grew up in a real life. Some of the people and this is why there's been such deterioration in the Senate and especially in the House for our presenters. People grown up in a make believe go for the that moment's headline life. And that's not America. Did you feel the same way about Did you feel the same way about right here? Grab the mic. I grew up with the sense of strong community respect for other people and as you pointed out not prejudging people and understanding that there are things going on in their life that may be influencing what they're doing and what they're saying and it's always important to look at that and in Washington I didn't see that that always happened. I couldn't say it better than you just did. Senator, I realize you're probably younger than this but I wonder if you ever had a chance to ride on the Montpel, your O'Bells River railroad. I guess that's a yes. As I said, I didn't know my paternal grandparents because they both passed away before my parents even met but my maternal grandparents immigrated from Italy and we still have a lot of relatives there and settled in South Braga my grandfather was a stone carver and he and his brother started the zambal stone shed and his kids would sometimes go over to visit our grandparents for a few days we'd get on the train right out here and my folks would put me on the train the conductor knew who we were and said don't worry Mr. and Mrs. Laidale I'll get them off we'd bribe in South Braga there was a stop there my grandfather would be there he'd say Mr. Zambal I got your grandchildren here and he'd take us off I don't know and wave goodbye what else are you doing on a train since then I've taken the train a lot between New York and Washington it's a little bit different but we've had grandchildren up here at such memories that we have several times taken our grandchildren we've gotten on the train in Waterbury and written down to White River getting on White River somebody from my office would meet us there we'd have lunch go them on Shire and drive back to to Middlesex those kids still talk about it years later doing it it's a special way to see to see Vermont yes thank you for being here I imagine that being a senator might be a little stressful and I wonder just talk I'm Patty Casey I'm just wondering what you do to take care of yourself to stay so vigorous I'm fortunate that I married way above myself I married a compassionate wonderful registered nurse we had to wait until she finished nursing school before we could get married because somebody had to have a job I was a lost and but she has gone all over the world with me we've done things together we've had parents raising children spending time with grandchildren caring for a mother for years in her later life and learned about human beings now I'll tell you a secret, don't tell her I told you this but when we first started dating she and her parents would only speak French at home and I had to dramatically improve my French so I could understand what they were saying about me is that right? but I think the being able to come back home I was home several times a month and the nice thing is it's not that long of a flight from Washington during the time I was in the Senate and I'd get to see people in the grocery store pick up my newspaper do whatever I was doing and people would stop and talk and you realize what you're hearing from people in the store walking down the street might be a lot different than what you're hearing on pundits on national television from the right or the left and that helped keep me keep me anchored I think I know I've had different Senators who have come up here in both parties and stay with us at the farm and go around and every one of us said this is different than my state and I think that's a compliment because of the way we could be and even when I was president pro tem and I walk around with this entourage armed guards because you're third in line to the presidency there was only one time that I was really glad to have and I was hearing from Bob then I was in St. John'sbury and this little guy comes up to me and he says, Pat do you remember me? I said, I'm sorry I don't he said, well we met before and I said, well when? He said, 1974 and I said well I wasn't in the Senate in 1974 I was state's attorney and you threw my ass in jail and I've been wanting to talk to you about it now I had an airplane to catch we were in St. John'sbury even with these guys with their police guys I said, I got to catch a plane and he said, I've been meaning to talk to you I think if this guy's been meaning to talk to me for 40 years I don't want to talk to him and one of the agents was a lot taller and I leaned over and said, why don't you talk with me I got a car I have no idea I felt like saying you weren't the only person I prosecuted that was there for 8 years I'll also just add this quick addition to that I think you wake up very early in the morning and read every local paper in the state of Vermont even when he was in D.C. because I'd call him in the morning with some news because I was his eyes and ears for Montpelier for many years and he'd already know it there was nothing I could tell this man that he hadn't already read by 7 in the morning so that kept him young I think I think Digger in 7 days is so good at getting stuff out and the other newspapers I can read online I think local news is very important and it's diminishing because of the cost and everything else and you lose on that and I think it's maybe that's one of the effects it's having and they sent it in the house that they're interested in what's going to be on that 30 second bite somewhere in national dues Senator can you hear me? okay hold the microphone a little bit closer my grandparents were on different sides of the aisle during the strikes in Barrie my grandfather was the Comptroller for the Rock of Ages my grandmother was the cousin of the socialist mayor in Barrie they seem to get on okay despite all that and I'm just sort of wondering if you have any memories of that time the other thing I remember is I grew up more in New York sort of back and forth between New York and Vermont in Vermont there was a big competition between Barrie and Montpelier Montpelier was bad and Barrie was good that's how I understood it and so anything you want to comment on the strikes were before my time but I do know that you go through one of the cemeteries in Barrie and you see a tombstone with Patrick J. Lehi now some of my opponents have said damn wrong one but that's my grandfather my father was born in Barrie we always had friends in Barrie in Montpelier my grandfather my Italian grandfather would come to Barrie and be with a lot of his friends for they'd have lunch when the restaurant I forgot what it was but I was about 6 or 7 years old he'd bring me with him and they'd be going in Italian French, English and I just sat there and listened to him and I had a lot of classmates here at St. Michael's who came here from Barrie I never felt the animosity between Barrie and Montpelier and I could never understand what I had been told about thank you Hello Senator my name is Liz Dodd and I moved here from Washington DC about 42 years ago and my husband was Tom Dodd and we've spoken about this before and Tom was with WDEV and he was a reporter for WDEV for many years but I wonder now given everything that this wonderful community has been through in the last few years particularly in the last few months what advice do you have that you in the wonderful career that you have in the wonderful giving person you are any advice that you have about how we might best get through what we have to deal with in coming through where we're at now any suggestions Of course WDEV we knew well because of the way he pressed it the printing for WDEV Lloyd Squire as a little kid I knew Lloyd Squire and his wife would come into their house and why Barrie she'd be making cookies or donuts as kids we thought boy that's really that radio station important we're getting hot cookies here but we sometimes forget how small our state is and there's some trends that bother me our graduation rate from high school is diminishing too many of our young people are leaving the state and we are the ages the average age is going up I worry about those who say well do we want to bring this business or not we want to bring businesses that require an educated workforce and then make sure we have the education and we push for it we've seen this in some of the places like an s6 junction I know some people are worried that they might want too much parking for this electric airplane electric helicopter they're making in Burlington I look at what they're paying the people who have to have all kinds of education and I'm thinking build a parking lot if you want you need these people there the ones who are going to buy homes and the ones who use their children we have got to have more emphasis on the education of our younger people but then we've got to have the jobs that appeal to them there will always be minimum wage jobs I understand that but we've got to ask them we can hold out to them and say you graduate from high school you learn this maybe you go to a trade school whatever you do there and I love the smell of coming in and I would get the diarthenies the arthenies worked there and others but I'd come in and talk deliver the newspapers I remember fresh food we when you grow up with an Italian mother you like you get used to home baked things and this was cross baking was close to home baking we could but I also saw the pride the people took in the in cross baking and I think George I think your father really instilled that and encouraged them in that so I it's the kind of thing they made one payer special Patrick I have a question tell us about your neighborhood what did you do as kids and do you remember the Montpelier curfew I remember that you you knew when the curfew was what was it 10 minutes of nine or 10 minutes of nine how's that for memory but the curfew was suggested recommended but I think our parents liked it because we had friends State Street did not have many families around where we were our friends were up to hill or other places and it reminded us to come home for our friends houses or for them to go home from from ours sister Barbsey the Anthony and others would you know you but you get used to play with it well in fact down the street from us on the other side of the street was a big open lot softball diamond there people would play play all kinds of sports there we go up a lot of us would go up to Hubbard Park we'd climb up walk up behind the State House we'd go sledding in the park in the wintertime we'd climb up there climb up the tower you know that 3,000 foot high tower when you're five years old and they had a whole area I don't know if they still do where you cook out first come first served there would be so many families there it was you knew families you knew which door was never locked and but you also knew you had to behave yourself mostly I behaved myself I worried about my brother and sister I got a look my sister was listening yes sir senator it's good to see you again especially in this capacity you did good things you do good things and you continue to do good things I don't have a question I said you do good things my wife and I arrived here in the States going on 40 years and what you represent is one of the reasons that we're still here I said you do good things fact is in church this morning the pastor kept saying thank you God thank you God I don't think God would mind if I said thank you senator thank you senator and as I close I'm looking around as I hear you talk about values from human values family values vision and as I look around here I see one or two youngsters and it is good that they're hearing you I spoke to Elizabeth here to my right and she was my question was is this your first of a series of interactions I don't know however I do hope it's not your last as you go across this state our young people need to hear you you're an icon or what do you want to call it a role model etc you and the Mrs. senator that's factual they need to hear that I read about your being here today in the seven days and I said I'm going to be wearing a suit tomorrow because I'm going to church now afterwards I'm going to keep on that suit because I'm going to hear a person who continues to make a difference in our society in our human family our kids need to hear that I'm active that is I participate very actively in our school board meeting there in Fairfax some of the adults who come bring some very negative and provocative stuff and I've heard more than one student at that school shush some of the adults because the adults are not bringing some a percentage but a distinct percentage a bringing verbiage that's not good for the students or our teachers or administrators etc again I say the body us as a state to say nothing about the nation and foreign stuff needs people like you to be you're doing good things you'll do more there's a scripture that says in gospel that we are expected to do more and greater things your presence encourages people to do that your profile encourages people to the reality that it can be done and I thank you again thank you thank you sir that means so much to me because you only do your best and it's not always the easiest it's all the what's your biggest trapping of being in the senate as the dean of the senate I have the nicest rooms and all that but that's not what the senate is the senate is how you act what you do for the country do you follow your conscience and one of the reasons I like coming home so much is that people like you know this would renew in me it's not about me it's about all of us and it means people coming together I think of the battles that we still had in segregation when I first came there I remember talking to people like Hubert Humphrey who talked about how he fought that I think of two of our granddaughters one white one black walking down the street here in Montpeyre the white granddaughter was here she was asked well who's this she said my sister and I don't think I could have done 48 years or done the things I'm most proud of if I couldn't come back to Vermont and my son and I talked about this when a few years ago we basically made up our mind not to run again even though I knew I could be re-elected and we wanted to come back here we were both born in Vermont our roots are here we believe in Vermont values and so we came back and the reasons for coming back we see every time we're going to the grocery store walking down the street to get a paper or whatever we're doing we run into people and we hear it at all ages all income levels, everything we just hear the reasons why we come here including people who agree or disagree with me on issues we can at least discuss it and I watch how the House and Senate have degenerated people forgetting they have an oath to the Constitution they have an oath to respect all of us and they're not they're respecting their own individual advancement or whatever else and that's wrong that one thing I pray for is that that will change and first trip back to Washington a couple of weeks ago two or three days running into some of my friends I'm pleased to hear those who wanted to change I'm distressed at those who don't want it to and that's a terrible mistake for our country we're a good country we have good values but we have to fight to keep those values when children go to school they have to be taught those values real values, not sloganeering they have to I'm thankful I'll stop with this, I'm thankful other times when I finally realize why my parents stopped on the way home I believed in the grocery store climbed up those brickity stairs knocked out a door leaving a bag of groceries and I think of all the we're saying the same thing it's keep our values as Vermonters I wish to hack the rest of the Congress would and your teacher's going to get the final word final word I had not planned this, believe me what grade was it Maxine? I had you twice a day every school day for a whole year what grade? senior, you were a senior chemistry and sociology and why you are still here after that chemistry class I do not know why you said not to become a chemist what I knew about chemistry was mighty little but I was one of the sisters of mercy and you went and taught what you were told to go teach and you were the first class I had for chemistry and it's a miracle and I'm not religious anymore but it's a miracle you're here it's a miracle this building is still here we didn't blow it up that's right I want to ask you do you have any good memories of your time in this building and this of course was the gymnasium without that ceiling and do you have any that you would like to share with us? just seeing my friends walking in you would walk for a moment I'd walk home for lunch sometimes down the railroad tracks but it just seeing friends and talking with them I didn't spend that much time in gymnasium because with my lack of depth perception I would be good although I did have one fun with this thing we had what was the coach's name? Sheridan yes Roger Sheridan was a good-sized person and they named me I was over 6 feet tall by the time I was a freshman in high school and they named me the manager of the team so coach Sheridan and I would drive to a town we probably hadn't played before but we'd go there and set things up and we'd walk in and everybody would walk in and we'd walk in and everybody would look at me and say what position do you play? I said I was too short to make the team I know I was a little bit of a lie but it sure had an effect okay thank you all for coming thank you Senator Leahy thank you Diane I want to thank Diane Diane is more tired of this thank you all this part is when we you may be handed a membership information card on your way out and don't hesitate to join thank you very much also there are refreshments refreshments yes I've been getting a mad signal I didn't understand a refreshments after the last very good thank you