Hello and thanks to everyone at Safety Village in Butler, Missouri. For many years, now, I have had the pleasure of visiting with the kids, staff and parents attending a summer camp with a twist: it's a place young folks learn all about staying safe. It is also great to drive through such a wonderful town. Safety Village, by the way, is the result of lots of hard work and dedication by the Butler Optimist Club.

I have a soft spot for the Optimists. When I was a kid, our next door neighbor, Mr. Moely, was an Optimist...both the club and disposition. His own sons were grown and lived several hours away, so for the Father/Son luncheon, one year, he invited me. It was my first formal, adults-present, luncheon. So, I spent the morning shining my shoes. We had a little shoe-shine kit with brushes, polish, rags. Every house I ever visited as a child had such a collection. Today, I think shining shoes at home may be a lost art. So many tennis shoes and canvas shoes and sandals. But, there was a time a kid was responsible for making sure his Sunday shoes were shined...a Saturday night ritual. Well, the Optimist meeting was on a Tuesday, so I broke with tradition and shined my shoes, anyway. I worked hard and, eventually, could almost see myself in the gleaming, artificial leather. Of course, my knuckles were a dark brown and the underside of my fingernails would have been inviting for nightcrawlers, but the shoes were outstanding. Mr. Moely and I had a great time. I enjoyed the bell ringing and handshaking and, occasional, dollar-bill collecting that went on over the course of the meeting. I felt pretty important when Mr. Moely introduced me to the other movers and shakers at the luncheon. Undoubtedly, they would all see my amazing talents and abilities and my future would be set...such was the power of the Optimists, in my mind. I wasn't too far off...the club, like in Butler, did do terrific things for young people in our community.

For example, they sponsored the Optimist Oratorical Contest, which I entered in middle school. My dad was big into Norman Vincent Peale and the Power of Positive Thinking at the time. (Around this same time, against his direct instruction, I tried to disassemble my bunk beds, causing the top one to nearly fall on me and shaking the whole house. As my dad raced up the stairs to find me with a half a bunk on the floor, I said "Let's look at this in a positive, optimistic way!" He was certainly positive about how much trouble I was in and optimistic about the lack of fun headed my way in the immediate future.) Anyway, he urged me to enter the competition and, use as my topic: enthusiasm. Or, I should say ENTHUSIASM!!!! He had a little red pamphlet from Dr. Peale all about the subject and figured a group called Optimists would go for it. I wrote the speech and then practiced it over and over. Finally, the big day came to deliver the goods. I gave it all I had...I was practically bouncing off the salad bar, I was so up up up. I was so perky, even Katie Couric would've gotten a little nauseated. I wrapped up my three and half minute oration and took a seat. The other participants did their pathetic little chats and, then, it was time for the results. Well, I didn't win. Or get second. Or get third. I did get honorable mention. There were four of us in the running, by the way. My dad took it well. He immediately founded the Pessimists Club and challenged the Optimists to a mud-wrestling match.

The last time I was at my hometown's Optimist Club, I was doing the weather on a TV station in nearby Madison, Wisconsin. They invited me to make a speech about weather and television. I was happy and proud to do it, feeling a little full of myself...local boy makes good, kind of stuff. When I completed my rousing address they still only gave me an honorable mention on the presentation and one, long-time, member made a point of checking to see if my knuckles and fingernails were cleaner this time around. I thought about contacting what was left of my dad's Pessimists Club but they had disbanded because the members had long ago decided that nothing good would ever come out of the organization.