Last modified: Thursday, February 21, 2008 1:15 AM EST FLANAGAN: How about a Larry Fitton Gallery? I could almost hear Larry Fitton saying, "You don't hear me complaining, do you?" Fitton, who died in May 2005 at age 89, could make a joke about anything. It didn't matter much if the joke was clean or tasteful, either. Oh sure, his persona as Lookit the Clown - a kazoo-playing, motorcycle-riding clown - was family fare worthy of a G rating. But there was also the wisecracking "Sam" Fitton, who sometimes preferred a dirty and tasteless joke over a clean and tasteful one. Don't get me wrong. I admired all the other stuff about Fitton. His devotion to the City of Attleboro, shown through his long service as councilman, zoning and planning office supervisor, member of a few appointed committees and official town crier. His career prior to that was as a labor organizer. His love of history. His love of bringing people together. His joie de vivre, which kept him riding a motorcycle and heading off onto bottle-collecting adventures well into his 80s. I admire all that stuff, but three years after his death - which followed 30 years of knowing him as a newsmaker and friend - it's his sense of humor that sticks out in memory above all his other characteristics. And that puts me in City Councilman Brian Kirby's corner when he voiced second thoughts about the wisdom of memorializing Fitton by giving his name to the main hallway in the Old Post Office. "I don't know if we can just name a hallway after Larry," he said. "He was as big as life itself." Ultimately, the hallway was named for Fitton on the same night the council voted unanimously to name the Old Post Office, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, in memory of the late Mayor Kai Shang. Politically, I think the council did the astute thing. Shang's widow, Diana, has reportedly long been advocating the honor. Mayor Kevin Dumas, a professed Shang admirer, proposed the naming quite some time ago. What has likely been holding up action is some grumbling - admittedly including some from this corner - about Shang's role in the departure of the post office from the downtown and the previous controversy over the taking of his former Soon Lee Laundry for an urban renewal project. But it is time to file that one under "very complicated and very old story" and move on. So now the Shang Building at the Old Post Office will appropriately look out onto the site where the dry cleaning shop was. It will include a Fitton Hallway. And, as noted earlier, I can almost hear Fitton cackling, "You don't hear me complaining, do you?" What could make the hallway name reason for complaint, however, is that Fitton is most often remembered in connection with public gatherings - they were hardly official until the town crier had rung his bell and announced "Oyez, oyez, oyez" - and with fun. And maybe a fun place where the public gathers could be found for the second Fitton memorial that Councilman Walter Thibodeau hints may be in the offing. Another alternative, though, would be to make the hallway worthy of its name. With the building now occupied by a satellite office of the Registry of Deeds, opportunities to host any kind of public gathering there would be minimal. But the hallway could make for an attractive gallery, and an appropriate setting for displays related to Fitton's great love of history, particularly local history. You could hardly imagine a more fitting place for exhibits of the Attleboro that used to be. The post office hallway itself was one of the busiest places in downtown Attleboro's heyday. Former postmasters include the late Cyril K. Brennan, mayor for all of the 1950s and for a total of 16 years. The adoption of the Shang Building name is virtually an invitation to include pictures of the block across the street when it included the Soon Lee Laundry, Saltzman's, Rotenberg's tailor shop, the original Park Tavern and other sites that have faded into history. Such a galley could provide an inviting link between the industrial and arts museums downtown. Folks waiting to check out a deed would have something interesting to look at while waiting. And if the appropriate photos were chosen, they might find something to laugh about, too. And that would be a fitting tribute to the memory of Larry Fitton. MARK FLANAGAN is Opinion Page editor of The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0335 or by e-mail to mflanagan@thesunchronicle.com.