A presentation at Powell Middle School by retired U.S. Sen. Al Simpson was anything but a boring talk about politics.

Using his trademark sense of humor, Simpson kept students laughing while telling them about his experiences in the Senate and talking about issues facing the Senate and the nation today.

While waiting for teachers to get the microphone to work, Simpson told them his height, 6 feet 7 inches, and revealed his shoe size.

“There it is,” he said, holding up one shoe-clad foot. “It is a 16, 5E. I knew you’d want to see it.”

Duly impressed, the young audience exclaimed in unison, “Whoooaa!”

Simpson also entertained students with tales of Powell’s namesake, John Wesley Powell.

Moving into his politics discussion, Simpson told of serving on the Northwest College Board and of representing Park County in the Wyoming Legislature.

Simpson said his father was a governor and a U.S. senator, and his mother was first lady of Wyoming.

“I watched them carefully, to see if it changed them, if it made them different; if it blew them up; if it made them feel great and made them cocky, and they weren’t quite my mom and dad,” he said. “And it didn’t change them at all, so I thought, ‘I can do that.’”

“I did marry this delightful woman (his wife, Ann Simpson) 60 years ago,” he added. “If you’re going to do politics, marry a genial companion — someone who likes that stuff.

“I’ve seen (politics) destroy families; I’ve seen it destroy marriages,” he said. “You’re filled with ego; you’re the big shot, and you listen to somebody at an airport more than you would your own daughter.”

Compromise is important in politics, Simpson said.

“Compromise is not evil; it’s the essence of democracy; it’s the essence of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution,” he said. “So, if you can’t compromise on an issue without compromising yourself, don’t ever run for the school board, ... don’t ever run for the city council, don’t ever run for county commissioner — and for God’s sake, don’t ever get married,” he said, prompting laughter from the students.

Simpson said the most important man in America right now is U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming.

“He is chairman of the Budget Committee in the United States Senate,” he said of Enzi. “He’s an accountant — there’s never been an accountant in the Budget Committee — and he’s going to present a budget to America, and he will be torn to bits in doing it. Because, here we are, the largest reserve currency here on the earth, in this very country, and we’ve never had a budget for the last five and a half years. That’s best described as stupid.”

“He has a counterpart in the House, a Republican named Tom Price, ... and they’ll do (a budget),” he said. “When they do, they will be torn to bits by every single interest group in America.”

Simpson said some of the significant issues he worked on included immigration, nuclear waste and Social Security.

“Let me tell you about that, gang,” he said. “In the year 2033, and you’ll still be vital young people then, you’re going to go to the window to get your Social Security check, and you’re going to get 23 percent less. Everybody in America knows this. Medicare will be broke in 2026. Everybody knows this.

“Disability insurance will disappear next year; everybody knows this,” the Cody native said. “Who does anything about it? Nobody. Because the senior citizens are tougher and stronger and more selfish than you will ever know. You have no way to represent yourself. Congressmen don’t care about young people; they care about old people who vote.”

The toughest part of politics, Simpson said, “is to deal with people who don’t have any idea of what the issue is because they’ve been fed a bunch of junk by their people who believe as they do.”

The best part, he said, is helping people and ensuring that everyone has equal rights.

“It’s the duty of all of us to help those who struggle,” both on the local and the national level, he said. “It’s a duty; it’s an obligation to take care of our fellows.”

After serving 18 years in the U.S. Senate, Simpson taught at Harvard University.

“I couldn’t have gotten into Harvard (as a student) if I picked the locks,” he told the students. “I never graduated sigma cum laude; I graduated thank the laude.”

One student asked Simpson where he would be now if he hadn’t been elected to the Senate. While he couldn’t answer that definitively, he said he was sure he would have been a much different person if he hadn’t married Ann.

“If I hadn’t met her, I would have been in real trouble,” he said. “I was contrary, ornery, stupid.”

He described some of the mischief he got into as a young man, including landing in jail in Laramie during his days at the University of Wyoming after punching a policeman. He called Ann, then his girlfriend, who refused to bail him out and told him he deserved what he got.

“I spent a night in the clink,” he said. “I do not recommend that to anyone.”

That caused some soul searching, and he decided he had to stop drinking to excess and “being stupid.”

“I did know one thing: If I continued to do that, I would never live to be 30,” he said.

He also came to a conclusion about Ann. “I decided that I should marry her, which I did, later,” he said.

Simpson said his real change came when he went into the Army.

“It was in the Army, for the first time in my life, that I couldn’t get away with something. They called me Alibi Al. In the Army, I couldn’t get out of it. I was trapped, and my BS didn’t work and all my cutsies didn’t work, and I was told, ‘You will do this.’ I tell you, it was the toughest part of my life. ... But again, it helped me grow up.”

He didn’t recommend that path, however.

“It’s easier to pull out (of problems) with someone who loves you and cares about you and knows you’re being stupid,” he said.

Simpson advised students to do their best always.

“Whatever you do in life, get good at it, and, hopefully, you’ll do something you love.”