"Wooo-Eeee, Ah'm just so proud to be heah."

That's a quote (approximately) that Minnie Pearl intoned every time she stepped onto the stage at Nashville's Grand Ole' Opry.

Well, Ah'm here to tell ever' body that ah feel exactly like Minnie Pearl did.

But it's the Camellia City, its people and their outlook on life that spurs my community pride in our great and beautiful city.

As a matter of fact, I'm so proud of Greenville that when I poke out my chest I'm just bustin' my buttons.

Can you conceive of the rating our city achieved-a flat perfect 100-percent-in an all-inclusive survey of 28,000 towns and cities, to determine the best hometowns in the U.S. of A.

We're the tops-we are the coloseum-leading the pack and leaving the remaining 27,999 municipalities in the dust, striving to catch up.

It makes me feel a kinship with young Aladdin in Greek mythology; he acquired a magic lamp, and the genie agreed to grant him three wishes.

I differ with Aladdin in that I have no need for the wishes; you see, all my wishes already have been granted with the recognition of the excellence of our fair city as mirrored by the survey.

In a discussion of our newly found notoriety with Councilman Steve Norman last week he noted that the survey team had been checked out and that the team had no axe to grind, but rather had been completely unbiased and impartial in their exhaustive survey.

Mayor Dexter McLendon said "I've been knowing got a long time that Greenville is a special place; I've been here all of my life and I don't want to live anywhere else."

People who move into our town just don't seem to be able to unglue themselves from the Camellia City, but remain here until death do us part.

Adjectives that apply to the Butler County seat of government follow: magnificent, grand, imposing, stately, great, and others that put a plus on the good feeling.

Once again I'll steal Minnie Pearl's line: "Wooo-Eeee, Ah'm just so proud to be heah."