The members of the Okefenokee Glee Club and Perloo Society as portrayed by Walt Kelley perfectly mirrored membership in Southern polite society.

Through Pogo and his friends Mr. Kelley demonstrated human frailty and human nobility, the gentility of Southern living, and the fears and prejudices that isolated back country ignorance wraps around its inhabitants.

Mr. Kelley showed the world through eyes of innocence, and often drew on the foibles and folly of politics and 'gummint' activities for inspiration. In later years his strips took a look beyond folly and found fear and meanness in the activities of the Kluk Klams and Jack Acid Society, and swamp characters that took a decided similarity of appearance and behavior to Fidel Castro, Nikita Kruschev, and Barry Goldwater.

His humor was gentle, and showed always the influence of the outside world on his denizens of the Okefenokee version of the Garden of Eden.

Walt Kelley on the meaning of things:

"To return to a favorite complaint of mine, there is altogether too much searching for meaning in this world. Who understands a buttercup? Do you walk up to a tree and say, "Hey, Tree, what are you up to?" Do you poke at it, peek at it, spring out at it in the dark, trying to catch it off guard?

It's like the old question of whether or not a tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear it makes a noise.

I don't understand completely, and I don't care to understand, the mechanics and physics of sound.

I know that if it falls on me, I'll make a noise. Knowledge and meaning can be too earnestly sought after. I'm for the boy who, blind or helpless, can lie around and find moonlight and dancing girls going about their business in the secrecy of his mind alone."

Taking sides:

"Pogo is at his most interesting when he is in hot water. That is why he reluctantly finds himself at odds with all extremists.

As he has said, he's against the extreme right, the extreme left and the extreme middle. A possum no less than any man is judged not by what he's for, but what he's against. It may be that it is physically impossible to be against the middle but there are many enemies in the strata to consider, including the muddlesome bore.

Naturally, if you are against either extreme, you are thought to be in the middle, which is no place to be when the latest philosophical fad tries to sway your sense of direction. It is probably folly to try to fight all three entrenchments. And these positions are trenches indeed, for each can eventually become the tiresome stuff of reaction. Freedom joins no organization but remains the goal toward which all organized men must move. But if it is folly to fight all reaction, it must be remembered that fools take many disguises. . ."

Kelley on right wing societies:

"All of the right-wing societies that might be confused with the Jack Acid Society are understandably as nervous as a troop of elephants trying to walk on water. They claim to be apprehensive of the far left, the left and even the middle, but they also keep a sharp eye on each other.

There are too many saviors in the league. Each of them is sniffing the air, testing the surface and taking personal affront at all the sudden noises. It is a thoroughly näive reporter who will take one ultra group for another or claim that one is in sympathy with another. A large part of this mutual distaste is economic in root. There is keen competition now, not only for the disciples, but for the contents of the collection plate.

There has also been a little God snatching and flag appropriating here and there. Most societies claim that God is on their side, and by implication, it is questionable whether He is on any other side."

And who can forget Walt Kelley's songs and poems?

Deck Us All With Boston Charlie

Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
Swaller dollar cauliflower alley-garoo!
Don't we know archaic barrel
Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou?
Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
Boola boola Pensacola hullabaloo!

Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Polly wolly cracker 'n' too-da-loo!
Donkey Bonny brays a carol,
Antelope cantaloupe, 'lope with you!
Hunky Dory's pop is lolly
Gaggin' on the wagon, willy, folly go through!
Chollie's collie barks at Barrow,
Harum scarum five alarm bung-a-loo!

Dunk us all in bowls of barley,
Hinky dinky dink an' polly voo!
Chilly Filly's name is Chollie,
Chollie Filly's jolly chilly view halloo!
Bark us all bow-wows of folly,
Double-bubble, toyland trouble! Woof, woof, woof!
Tizzy seas on melon collie!
Dibble-dabble, scribble-scrabble! Goof, goof, goof!