First Capital Trip

Scrapbook page of our visit to the Minnesota
Capitol. (dwm photo)

  I was surprised to see in the scrapbook where Dad and I recorded our capital visits that Wisconsin wasn't actually our first one.

 In paging through the book, I think that's because we saw the statehouse in Madison before any others, but didn't decide to record our trips until we got to the second capital.

 I was 10, Dad was 34 on our first trip - just us guys.

 Minnesota's capitol had a state map in the sidewalk with each country represented by either a marble or granite stone.

It was my job to draw a map
of the state. (dwm photo)

From Minnesota we drove south to Des Moines to see its statehouse with its gold dome.  

Our experience in the Iowa capitol was made special when an Iowa legislator took time to talk with us.  Lawmakers worked at their desk in the House chamber because they didn't have individual offices.  I believe we were standing outside the chamber looking in and he walked over to chat.  That was the highlight of our visit.

We had no idea then that less than 10 years later, I'd be working in the Iowa Capitol as a reporter.  

The next day, we stopped in Iowa City to take in a football game at the University of Iowa.  It was my first big-time college game.  Iowa wasn't good that year, they lost to Purdue 48 - 23.

One of Wisconsin's pages in our
scrapbook. (dwm photo)

 Based on the dates in the scrapbook, it's clear we went back to the Wisconsin capitol on Monday, after returning home.  I don't know, but suspect we drove up after dad got off work to pick up postcards and take an official tour.

 In addition to the postcards, we stopped in offices of state executives like Governor and Secretary of State to see if they had any good free stuff.  The Wisconsin Supreme Court gave us a page with the official black and white photograph of the seven justices.

 With each visit we added things we 'had to do' to make it an official trip.  In addition to seeking the best giveaways, I began purchasing small state flags for a collection if we could find one, a couple times we spent more time looking for a flag than we did touring the capitol.

 Over the next several Thursdays, we'll walk back through the scrapbooks to see what memories are worth sharing here.