In an article about how Democratic Party House Speaker Chris Welch has been driven out of office for his tolerance of inappropriate sexual behavior appears the following:
“Male lawmakers once commonly referred to legislative sessions in Springfield as ‘going to camp,’ away from family and hometown friends. In pushing Welch out, an apparent majority of the incoming Democratic caucus is intent on putting out the campfire.”
The first indication I had of this situation came from the play “Boss.”
A line in one of the songs refers to “the girls who keep their jobs with their tails.” They were called “monkey girls.”
I later was told that Illinois Bell, a higly regulated company, hired attractive young women from small Illlinois towns who ended up providing “entertainment” to legislators.
Durig the 1980’s, one Chicago State Representative pledged to vote against the Equal Rights Amendment the day before the vote flipped and voted “Yes.”
The observation was made that an ERA supporter must have put her whole body into the fight,
During one of Governor Jim Thompson’s Election Night blowouts a young woman at the entrance made a proposal I considered inappropriate.
I told her I was married to which she replied, “Are you going to let your wife run your life?”
“With this I am” was my reply.
Finally, having seen divorces in too many couples where the wives were beauties, I warned one couple at the Leadership Caucus ,as I was going out of office the first time, of the dangers to marriage of serving in Springfield.
I later heard him describe life in Springiflield as the “closest thing to college” he ever experienced.
Fast forward a couple of years when I was staying in an apartment in Fallingbrook, a towshouse community. It was warm, so I had the window open. About five in the morning, I heard this State Representative leaving one of the nearby dwellings.
He ended up divorced.
