The Long Walk

The front doors of the Massachusetts State House are opened on three occasions, and three occasions only:

1) A visit from a US President or sitting head of state
2) The return of a former Governor to lay in state
3) The Long Walk, the ceremonial departure of a Governor from the State House.


The Long Walk was first taken by Benjamin "Spoons" Butler. Butler, a single-term Governor, was nicknamed "Spoons" for the possibly apocryphal incident when he, as Military Governor of New Orleans and Southern Louisiana, made off with the state house's silver spoon collection - "confiscated" as the booty of a sacked foreign power, and also began the tradition of handing off a bible and key to the incoming Governor.

Well, legend has it that Spoons was so reviled by the end of his solitary term in 1884 that no one would walk out of the State House with him. Thus was born the tradition of a Governor walking down the front steps, alone, to rejoin the Massachusetts as a "mere" citizen.

The tradition of the Long Walk has been rarely tampered with over the years, recently as Mike Dukakis walked down the steps with his wife Kitty, and then when Governor Bill Weld and Lt. Governor Paul Cellucci met each other mid way, Weld going out, Cellucci going in. (Perhaps Gov. Cellucci noticed Gov. Weld needed a bit of steadying as he was descending the stairs: there were ample stories after the event that Weld was feeling no pain as he left...)

This year, the timing of the Walk is altered, as new Governor Deval Patrick is planning an outdoor inauguration on January 4th, rather than the traditional House Chamber ceremony and will be using the front yard of the State House.

So Governor Romney will be making a twilight long walk, leaving tonight at 5pm. I'm giving myself a pass from my rule that I'm always home for dinner with the wife and kids to watch Romney leave. Beside being a total sucker for pomp and circumstance, I've been spending the last month or so bringing closure to my tenure in state government, and this is another way to do that.

The State House is an extraordinary place to work. Unlike many across the country, it's a working State House. All 200 legislators, the five "constitutional officers" (Governor, Lt. Gov, Treaurer, Attorney General, and Auditor) have offices there, and actual work is carried out. Every day brings bustling student groups, with the holiday season seeing a different school band or chorus performing every couple of days. I've spent most of my adult life haunting this building and I've come to love it, and many of the people who work within it.

Now look at this, I've gotten all maudling on you. Well, that tells me it's time to wrap this up. There'll be time enough to get maudlin later (after a few ambered colored liquids this evening, I'm sure...)

So, I leave you with two things:

First, here's my extraordinrily artsy-fartsy picture of the "Hall of Flags" in the State House, where flags from the state's 351 cities and towns are on display,

From Kal's Pix

And, in honor of this passage in my life, I've posted Styx's "Sail Away" over at The Garage. (actually, it hasn't posted yet, but I sent it from YouTube... Hmm... Oh well, there's a lot of other neat crappy music over there to waste time on...