Neither man nor beast is safe, as the old saying goes, while the legislature is in session in Raleigh.
I know. I put in five years there one time as a member of the state capital press corps. I had a blast back then. Much of the time.
So I got a chuckle from one of the ideas this year to come out of the General Assembly, which is in session now.
There’s a bill awaiting a vote in the state House of Representatives that would allow the N.C. Supreme Court to meet twice a year in Morganton, at the old county courthouse on the square smack in the middle of town.
The proposal is the brainchild of the senator from there.
Coincidentally I also put in five years one time in Morganton, at the newspaper there. Though I have some smart buddies who’ll try to tell you that it was at the mental hospital, Broughton.
I do remember that they had some strange ideas about some things in Morganton. Like seeing a Supreme Court session as grand entertainment.
Since Barnum and Bailey announced recently that they will no longer have elephants in their circus, folks in Morganton must be thinking that having the justices come to town would be the next best thing.
Instead of circus elephants, they could have the honorables march, with their robes flowing, from the Community House — the town’s banquet hall that caters to the upper crust — along the two blocks to the old courthouse. The local Freedom High band could march and play circus music.
The newest Supreme Court justice, Jimmy Ervin — grandson of the late Senator Sam — is from Morganton. Justice Ervin could give his fellow honorables a tour of the place and show them all of the places where he got in trouble as a kid.
I met Jimmy Ervin one time. He was fresh out of law school then, and we were the only twentysomethings at a Democratic Party gathering at the Community House. I was there as a newspaper reporter.
So I sidled up to Ervin for company during a social time. Ervin seemed as out of place as I. We chatted, and Ervin seemed a nice, down-to-earth type.
You know, they may have an idea here with this notion of a traveling Supreme Court. If the tourism folks play their cards right, they could turn our honorables into rock stars.
Picture this ad on TV and the radio: the Supreme Court, in session near you this summer. Call Ticketmaster.
Autograph session following court. T-shirts thrown into the crowd during halftime of oral arguments. At the kid’s carnival, take your little one over to the photo booth to get his or her picture taken in a judge’s robe and gavel.
And if we could get the justices to come here to Elkin, just think of the possibility: An “American Idol”-style talent show/benefit at Dixon Auditorium with REAL judges. I’m sure they’d be thrilled to come.
Actually, the justices who by law must hold court in Raleigh at other times traveled to Edenton for a session in 2004 and liked it so much that they went back in 2013.
During antebellum years, before air-conditioning, the Supreme Court held August sessions in Morganton as the justices sought to escape the Raleigh heat. The western railroad then only went as far as Morganton.
So in light of that, we’ve got to hold a commemoration of those wonderful days of yesteryear. And hold a Supreme Court session at Tweetsie. Justice Ervin gets the honor of shooting the Indians.
Stephen Harris returned home to live in State Road.
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