Covering the Louisiana Legislature has been one of the highlights of my long newspaper career, but today’s politics miss much of the flavor of earlier years. I ran across a couple of columns I wrote that give you some idea of what life at the state Capitol was like back then.

A 1972 column was written just before Gov.-elect Edwin W. Edwards took office for the first time. The late state Rep. Conway LeBleu of Cameron said it would be nice to have a governor call him by his right name for a change. He said he had been “Conrad” by Gov. John McKeithen over the previous eight years.

“He did call me Conway once,” LeBleu said, “when he asked me to vote for one of his bills.”

A few legislators said Victor Bussie, president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO, was walking around like a father who couldn’t find his children. Labor candidates didn’t fare well in the election.

There was a lot of talk about banning lobbyists from the floors of the House and Senate. We picked up two definitions of lobbyists in the process. A new legislator said he heard a lobbyist was a fellow who could follow you into a revolving door and come out first. “They tell me a lobbyist can tell you to go to hell,” he said, “and make you look forward to the trip.”

Reform legislators did get lobbyists off the floors of both chambers when the Legislature convened in May, and the reforms continued for the next eight years that Edwards was governor.

A 1976 column was about a bad week I had at a June legislative session. State Police kicked me off the governor’s elevator. The air conditioning at the hotel was out for two days. My best friend and his wife took me out to eat, but he had forgotten to cash a check, and I had to pick up the tab. And I had a rare asthma attack.

After hearing my sad tale, a colleague asked if I had run into any locusts. There weren’t any, thank goodness, but I did have to slaughter a roach in the hotel bathroom.

Most of my problems were self-explanatory. However, I had to explain the elevator incident.

The Capitol has three main elevators that go to all floors. Persons going to the first and second floors from the basement are asked to use the stairs.

A fourth elevator is marked “For state officials only.” Another small one goes up to the fourth floor to the governor’s office and is marked “For governor only.”

The governor used it and so did lawmakers and others, including reporters. Stairs are nearby, but they get tiresome when one is going from the first floor to the basement throughout the day.

I’m not a brash person and wouldn’t presume to take liberties with the governor’s elevator. However, others who weren’t working any harder than I was were using it, so I saw nothing wrong with climbing aboard now and then.

State Police were operating the governor’s elevator at that time, and the young trooper saw my reporter’s notebook and asked if I was a newsman. I told him I was, and he told me from then on I was to use the stairs.

My notebook had gotten me in and out of the legislative chambers with ease because “News” was stamped on the cover in big print. If I had been smart, I would have stuck it in my pocket before boarding the elevator.

I got on that elevator on another occasion when State Police were nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, the elevator got stuck between the basement and the first floor and I had to call the fire department to get me out.

I never got on that elevator again. Now, you have to have a card to swipe in order to use it.

The Legislature has come a long way since the circus atmosphere I found on my first trip there in 1968. Coverage is much easier now because the technology is vastly improved, and legislative sessions and committee meetings are televised.

As much as I have enjoyed my time at the state Capitol and my contact with area legislators over many years, I keep remembering what my editor told me years ago.

Covering sports and the Legislature are a young person’s game, he said. Yes, it is, and there are some great ones still in Baton Rouge doing an outstanding job. As for me, I’m going to cover developments from home and enjoy the memories.