Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

where they paid you far two years the first day you got there.
(laughter)
Q: Do you recall that first day? What happened on the first day?
A: Oh, nothing significant. I guess we were in the process of organizing, I
guess, and electing our speaker and so forth.
Q; Were you assigned a seat?
A: You're assigned a seat. T got a seat beside my friend Kenny Wilson who
came from the next district up, the 21st. He had been in the legislature two
years earlier, so it was a good spot for me because he was knowledgeable, Be
is now an appellate court judge. He*s s very knowledgeable fellow and I
got a lot of help from him.
Q: And which committees were you assigned to in the organization?
A: Now, that I cannot remember. I would have to go back to the . . .
Q: Letts see, you were on the insurance committee, I believe, weren't you?
A: I'm not sure of that. See, after twenty years it's kind of difficult to
point out what committees you were on on a particular year, because they've
been up and down.
Q: I see.
A: I think . . . think I was on cities and villages. See, then, too, the
names have changed over the years, too.
Q: Yes, sir, That would be municipalities now, I gueqs.
A: It might have been municipalities then, I don't know. Municipalities in
the House, then. See, I have been in the House and Senate and the structure's
different, so--1 tell you, on those kind of questions, I would really rather
that we go to the books because it's laid out there, the committees.
Q: What I'm trying to do is get a feel for what you felt that first day and
dllring this organization. Was it confusing?
A: No, it's never been confusing to me. I understood what was going on and
what the plans were. No, I never was confused at any time about any of it,
including the first day.
Q: In regard to the committees, were you involved at all in the committees
that you were assigned to serve on?
A: In other words, was I in the day-to-day world on those committees? One,
I know I was. I was involved in the judiciary committee, I was assigned to
the judiciary committee, which is a committee on which only lawyers could
serve at that time. We were concerned wlth the laws, with reference to the