The campaign poster above is from 1979 - during the '90s I worked with this guy every year at the meeting of the state legislature.
I thought about him recently when I was typing about England's Sarah Ferguson - recounting one commentator saying that the sentiment of Sarah being a wonderful "breath of fresh air" in the Royal Family was popular at first, but then once she was in the Royal Family, attitudes changed to "Oh no! She's ghastly!"
(The word 'ghastly' is used more commonly in the United Kingdom than it is in America.)
That little story reminded me of one time when I ran an idea about economic development for small towns by Representative Pederson. Shaking his head 'no,' he said, "Naahh - people say they want economic development, but then they don't like the changes that come with it, and they get mad and raise hell."
(I could imagine: "Oh no! This economic development is ghastly! What are they doing to us??!")
Representative Pederson served in the military during World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam.
Some of the lobbyists were a little disdainful of him.
Some of those guys were from our state's largest city, and I wondered if maybe, for 10 months out of the year, they mostly just associate with people who are like them in social class and personal style. Then they come out to the legislature in the winter, and there's a wider variety of personalities, backgrounds, and styles - and maybe it freaks them out a little....
I've noticed, in life, that some people don't do well, or feel comfortable, outside of their usual daily milieu.
I remember one year when the legislative session was almost over - only a few days left, everything's winding up - and I was walking on the House floor to speak to a few people and give them information - I said Hi to Rep. Pederson as I approached his desk where he was standing, with some papers, looking through them. He said, in his usual gruff tone, "Oh, we're gonna kill bills today!"
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