Friday night it was my great pleasure and honor to be a small part of the Salvation Army's 25th Anniversary of the Children's Shelter. The Allegro Children's Choir sang several wonderful songs. They did a rendition of Home On The Range, that would make the deer and the antelope quit playing and applaud. A nice example of children helping children. Our oldest son sang with Allegro briefly many years ago but Friday night's group was an all-girl conglomeration. I'm not sure, but I don't think our son wore a black dress for his performances with the choir.

The Salvation Army took their chances by asking me to do the live auction. I've been at many charitable events that feature auctions as a major part of the fund-raising but I am no auctioneer. I decided to try to channel the auctioneering talents of Larry Moore into my head. I must have gotten my channeling wires crossed because, while I never got into that auctioneer rhythm, I did end up growing some great tomatoes...overnight! Sometimes I do use double-talk and speedy syllables to hedge my bets during the weather forecast, but trying to sell stuff is a whole other thing. Frankly, I've never had any luck selling anything. My wife and I once had a garage sale that cost us money. All of our stuff was spread across the driveway on a beautiful spring day. We had lots of lookers...no buyers. Finally, a truck, already loaded up with goodies from other neighborhood sales, pulled up and we thought we'd hit the jackpot. Turns out the guy had no interest in anything we had but we did end up buying some piece of junk off of his truck. The saddest part of this story is that I don't even remember what we purchased. Now, that's mindless spending! Well, the Salvation Army had a wonderful roster of items including a Tom Watson autographed putter, several weekend get-a-ways, KU Basketball tickets, artwork and much more. With the help of eagle-eyed spotters, we made it through the list. I really should have listened to LeRoy Van Dyke on the way to the event.

Years ago, the Children's Shelter's annual dinner featured a fashion show starring the children of TV folks. All of our kids made the trip down the runway for a few years. Samantha loved it. Alexander was okay about it but would've liked it better if they'd given him a microphone and about five minutes to do his "material." Taylor hated it. Harrison was too young to care one way or the other. One year the KMBC Band made one of its two public appearances. A fine producer named John Novaria played the piano...Bryan Busby handled percussion...engineer Roger Garner was the bassist...I tried to sing. Fortunately, the crowd was still feeling charitable. Also, with a bunch of cute kids as our opening act...softening up the audience...we couldn't go wrong.

For those fashion shows, the kids wore whatever the contributing store suggested. As I mentioned, Samantha was pretty open to anything and, frankly, continues to be. Taylor, now 16, is a study in oranges, browns and tans. When he was very little he refused to wear anything with a corporate logo, saying "I don't want them to own me!" His older brother, Alex, used to like sports-related clothes. He still does but, as he gets older, he and Taylor both dress up a little more often. Just the other day, they both came in the door from a forensics tournament, decked out in their suits and ties and looking like a million bucks. Their mother tracked down her camera immediately to capture this moment. Of course, the picture may never be developed...if that's even still the word you use...so we may only see it on the little digital camera screen. Our littlest boy lives in the land of hand-me-downs.

When I think of the clothes the kids wear, I always remember one particular May day a few years ago. The Kansas City area had been enjoying unusually warm and pleasant weather for about a week. Then, one morning, it looked like we were in for a cool, rainy spring day. So, all during FirstNews, I was pounding home the idea that you needed to bundle up a little for the day because it was not going to be almost summer-like again. "No more shorts for the walk to school this morning!" For once, I was actually right. It was a chilly, drippy day. Well, later, as I was sitting in the living room reading the paper, our oldest son walks in the door in shorts and a t-shirt and flip-flops...like he'd been at the beach, not school. "What are you wearing? Didn't you hear me this morning on the news telling folks to dress warmly today?" I exclaimed. He responded, with a smile, "Well, dad, I don't even listen to you around the house, why would I listen to you on TV?"