Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

The Boston Globe obituary of Stanely Tupper of Maine recounts his years in Congress as one of the most principled of liberal Republicans, his vote for the Voting Rghts Act and the Medicare Act, his refusal to support Barry Goldwater or the first Bush president, his law practice, his co-authorship of a book on US-Canada relations, his years as a lawyer and his continued involvement in politics. I hadn't known of him before reading the obituary, but I came away impressed.

But what struck me most is this quote from his wife towards the end of the article:

But the most fun he ever had on the job, Mr. Tupper told his wife, was when he was a border patrolman in Texas and Maine. ''He was 21, they gave him a Stetson, a horse, and a badge, and no other job ever quite measured up to that," his widow said.

A Stetson, a horse, and a badge: An American peak experience.