The Kluck Klams

I started reading the newspaper when I was about 11 years old. My folks subscribed to the Cincinnati Post (and Time Star) and got the Sunday Cincinnati Enquirer.

I would lie on the living room floor and read the editorials, especially Bob Brumfield's column. He had a great outlook on current events and life in general.

I read the news of what was going on in the world and in our fair city, but I saved the best for last; The comic strips. By far my favorite strip was Pogo. It was drawn and written by Walt Kelly. He had one thumb on the pulse of the day's news events and the other was on his nose, thumbing it at politicians and assorted characters of the day.

He drew political figures the way he saw them. For instance, Nixon was a spider, Spiro Agnew was a hyena, Fidel Castro was a goat, Nikita Khrushchev was a pig and J. Edgar Hoover was a cat.

Perhaps my favorite strip was called the Kluck Klams. This one especially hit home when I moved my family to Middletown Ohio and found that the town was headquarters for the local branch. I used to see those idiots parading up and down Breiel Boulevard with their robes and pointy hats. They tried to stir the pot once and cause a riot in a local park. I saw the video on the news and it was more of a sissy slap fight.

But here is Walt Kelly's take on a sad part of our history.