Medical history from a collection at marylands National Museum of health and medicine. Each week american artifacts takes you to museums to reveal what americans know about american history. Lamar alexander from richard rings onto bill clinton. He recalled his walk across tennessee after part of his 1978 gubernatorial campaign. And he shared stories behind his mementos in his d. C. Office. My walk across tennessee was 1978. I began on january 26th at my parentss home in east tennessee. And then i walked east until march 1st. A big three foot snowstorm. It took me to july 6th. Its 1,000 miles. I shook 1,000 hands a day and spent every week night with someone whom i didnt know. I grew up in the great smokies. Or right next to it. Our scout troop every weekend, we would be in the mountains. And i love the outdoors. And so do most tennesseeans. We have more people with hunting and fishing licenses than vote in republican pry marries, for example. When i ran for governor for the first time
Follow me along. We would set it up. They would get up and play music. A crowd would gather. I would make a speech. Sometimes i would play the trombone or washboard. And then we would go to the next place. It was sort of a throwback to a campaign from 50 or 60 years ago. So i walked across the state 1,000 miles. Spent the night every night with someone in their homes. I went home on weekends. Usually saturday and sunday night. Then i would go right back to the same place. People would give me walking sticks as a symbol of my walk across the state. The first day was january 26th, 1978. And it was so cold and there was so much snow and ice as i stood there on my parentss front porch in tennessee that the trombone slide froze. So i just took off walking. I think my parents were probably pretty embarrassed. They raised me to be a respectable young man. I was standing on their porch announcing i was going to walk 1,000 miles across tennessee. I would rye to shake 1,000 hands a day. Usually
It was a levi shirt that they made right there in that factory. I had to think about what am i going to wear . You dont walk across the state in a blue suit. I had this red and black plaid shirt in my closet. I went to the Friedman Army surplus and bought a dozen more. I wouldnt want to wear the same one every day. Then as i walked across the state i auctioned them off to raise money for the campaign. I knew i was doing better by the time i got to middle tennessee around nashville, one shirt went for 500. And i thought, i may have a chance to win this. I wanted to save the boots. I think one of the boots is in a museum in appalachia. They were l. L. Bean. I already had them. In july it was over 100 degrees. I would carry around a few brochures in my left hand and pass them out to people. And i wasnt paying attention. It was in newport, tennessee. Saturday morning. It was still cold. It was probably february. And i walked right in front of the pickup truck. It knocked me up over the thi
Staff would say put your shirt on and go back out and walk with people. So even today we have an annual mule day parade, the first saturday of the year in columbia, tennessee. There might be 100,000 people there. I wear my red and black shirt and walk in the parade. The rule of thumb is walk in parades. If its the mule day parade, walk in the front. It affected everything about my political career. I dont think i would have been elected without it. Because it gave me a personality or a story that people paid attention to. It also came after i had lost a race. It was kind of like a pennance. It really put me in touch with people. If you stay in homes with people, you eat dinner around their table, you sleep in their beds, you go to their sons or daughterss softball games. You are not just making things up. You know the people that you are going to serve. During my eight years as governor, so many times if an issue came up about where weather to have stricter standards against criminals
Trombone slide froze. So i just took off walking. I think my parents were probably pretty embarrassed. They raised me to be a respectable young man. I was standing on their porch announcing i was going to walk 1,000 miles across tennessee. I would rye to shake 1,000 hands a day. Usually we would plan ahead. Maybe i would stop and have lunch with certain people. By late afternoon, particularly as the weather got better, i would get to a town. And i would have a family to stay with. It might be the local farm bureau head or just were someone from the community. I might go to their kidss softball game, have dinner in their home. They would usually invite some of their friends over for the evening. By that time i was pretty tired. I would go to sleep, get up the next morning. I went to one factory in tennessee where all the women who were working there admired my red and black plaid shirt. Turns out, thats where they made the shirt. It was a levi shirt that they made right there in that fa