In one of the biggest honors of Nelson Brown's career, he stood in the historic Hall of the House at the state Capitol to commemorate his 50th anniversary as House Speaker.
It was in front of a standing-room-only chamber on January 3, 2007 - opening day of the legislative session.
The House Speaker at the time, Democrat James Amann, had decided months earlier that Brown should be honored on opening day, and he presented the former speaker with an enlarged, black-and-white photograph from his days at the podium five decades earlier. The picture was signed by the current and former speakers - a very small and elite club.
Before the state's current system of 151 House members was adopted, Brown presided over a gigantic chamber with 279 members. At the time, the lopsided tally was 249 Republicans to 30 Democrats - a far cry from today when Democrats have dominated both chambers.
Amann introduced Brown as "one of the all-time favorites, especially mine.''
Brown, who died this week after a long illness at the age of 89, then gave Amann a 100-year-old book on parliamentary procedure that he had received in 1957 on the 50th anniversary of the speakership of John Q. Tilson, a New Haven Republican who served as speaker in 1907. Brown said he was keeping up the tradition of passing along the book every 50 years.
"That's pretty awesome,'' Amann responded as he held up the small, historic book in front of the crowd. "Speaker, I hope I can live the tradition. I don't know. Maybe we can switch it to 25 years.''
The House was clearly a very different place when Brown was in charge of 279 members.
"I bet Speaker Brown treated them all the same," Amann said.