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CHAMPION—February 6, 2012

          Champions were wakened with bright moonlight in their faces and the promise of a sunny day ahead.  The clear sky made for a cold morning, but Champions know that it is winter and do not complain.  Seed catalogues make good reading.

                A sharp knock on Esther Wrinkles’ door the other day brought her face to face with Jim Dewitt.  He has been delivering her propane since 1989.  In all that time they had not yet met.  In no time they became acquainted and before the propane company could even think that Jim might be dawdling, he and Esther had made an agreement that gave him two of her queen sized quilts (a pair of her beautiful strip quilts with matching linings) and Esther had a handful of money.  Cool.  If that were not enough, about an hour later the door banged again and it was Jim again and he wanted two more quilts.  Esther agreed and the deal was struck.  Meanwhile, way over on the other side of town Donna Dewitt received a phone call.  “When I come home you better hide under the table.”  Donna is not unfamiliar with this kind of communication from her husband, but when he called the second time with the same message, she took it to heart.  At the end of his work day Jim came home bounding through the door, arms overflowing with quilts, “Hello!  Hello!” he shouted.  No answer.  “Hello!” again to a quiet house.  He had time to arrange the quilts on the sofa before Donna came out from under the table.  “What were you doing under there?”  Well, he knew.  They tease each other affectionately all the time.  Jim was looking for a way to make Donna feel better.  “I want to make my wife happy,” is what he told Esther to get her to sell the quilts to him to begin with.  It worked.  Donna said that she knew that Esther called them ‘strip’ quilts, but one of them particularly was worked in such colors that she thought it looked like “Stair Steps to Heaven.”  It made Donna think about her daughter, Donna Lee Pierce, who recently passed away at the young age of 48.  She was a bubbly and bright person.  She battled health problems with an optimistic point of view.  She always cared about helping other people and she touched many lives in a positive way.  So Esther’s bright quilt brought a smile to several people and new friendships were forged just because Jim decided finally to pound on Esther’s Door.  She made some money—not nearly enough for her efforts, but she will say it all counts, and Jim made big time points with his sweetheart.  Donna says that she and Jim like to explore the countryside and she expects that one sunny day soon they will take a Saturday trip down to Champion to tour the square.  They can enjoy refreshments at the Hospitality Center of the Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side.  She is looking forward to seeing Esther’s Skyline VFD quilt on display there and plans to buy some tickets.  She may wind up with five of Esther’s’ quilts!  Champion!

          Everyone loves his own birthday, well, almost everyone, Mrs. Dupree.  It is a pretty sure bet that Alex and Aaron Underwood love their birthday.  They are eighth graders at Skyline and will be fourteen on the 7^th.  They share their birthday with Cowboy Jack who is so old that he went to the New Dogwood School.   Keith Braden is a sixth grader at Skyline and he will be twelve years old on the 9^th.  Kayla Volner will be fourteen that day.  She is in the eight grade.  Cheyenne Baker is in the second grade there and she will be eight years old on the 11^th.  These kids may all live to be one hundred, but these days that is a fairly rare occurrence.  Mrs. Edith Turner Graham has made it.  She celebrated with friends and family on Saturday, the 28^th of January, but her actual birthday was February 2^nd.  She admitted needing some help to blow all the candles out. There were about thirty of her family, friends, and neighbors there to help.  Edith said that she never gave any thought to living to be a hundred years old.  She just kept on living.  She said that she has probably had such good fortune in her life because she started out early going to Sunday school.  Her six older brothers went to the swimming hole on Sundays, but she went to Sunday school.  She is a native of the Squires community and lived right in that area her whole life until about three years ago when she moved in with her daughter, Eula Lakey, over in Veracruz.  She says that these days she mostly stays inside, but when the weather warms up she will be back out.  She had always had a big garden.  Her last year at home she canned a hundred quarts of peaches.  She picked out sixty pounds of walnut kernels that year.   Growing up in the country and raising her four children there, Edith knew how to keep busy.  She said that she remembered the first time she went to town. She was four or five years old and she rode horseback with her mother into Ava.  It was not much of a town, just a few houses and store buildings.  She went to school at Pleasant Hill and she remembers her Uncle Bank Wheeler making a Flying Ginny.   Kids knew how to have a good time back then.   Everyone who has lived so long has seen hard times and tragedy and it takes strength of character to keep a good perspective.  Edith says that at this age a person’s mind seems to come and go.  She seems to be holding on to her good thinking processes better than many much, much younger than herself.  She enjoys reading and keeping up with the news and visiting with family and friends.  A Champion visiting with her the other day asked if there was anything that she regretted doing or not doing in her hundred years.  Her reply was, “What would be the use of that?”  That is a sign of someone living in the present, though when asked about her favorite times she smiles and says how much she enjoyed riding her horse to church when she was a girl.  She went to Murray most of her life, but sometimes over to Wasola or other churches around.  Her oldest brother gave her that horse and saddle and it was a good time in her life. 

          A big ticker tape parade in New York City will celebrate the super bowl football winners and the good time in their lives.  A couple of guys in St. Louis recently organized a parade for Veterans of the current and recent conflicts in the Middle East.  It did some good.  Champions hope that more of those serving the Nation in the dangerous parts of the world will get some of that good feeling of recognition that privileged athletes enjoy.  The athletes work hard and are paid well for it.  Military personnel work hard and risk their lives for not much money and frequently not much in the way of support once they make it home.  They do not do what they do for the recognition, but it would still be a nice idea.  One old Champion thinks that National priorities seem eschewed when victorious gladiators are hailed and heroic warriors are ignored.

          Share some of the good times in your life at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367 Norwood, MO 65717 or at Champion at getgoin.net. Randy Newman sings, “We may only go ‘round once as far as I can tell.  It’s the time of your life, so live it well.”    Enjoy Champion good times at www.championnews.us or in person from the vantage point of the big front porch at Henson’s Store on the North Side of the Square in Historic Downtown Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—January 30, 2012

          Champions hold fast to their confidence and exhort each other today while it is still called “Today.”

          The week end in Champion was much improved by a visit from Raymond and Esther Howard. Raymond grew up down in Ozark County on the farm his grandfather homesteaded there.  After he finished school, he took off to Iowa where he shucked some corn and eventually came to rest somewhere around Hannibal.  There, out on Broadway Street, he met a cool North breeze and they made a team.  It sounds like it was a blind date at a bowling alley and pins have been falling ever since.  Esther has a great laugh and a youthful outlook.  She said that children and grandchildren grow up.  That is what they are supposed to do and you just have to let them go and love them wherever they go.  This was in response to a Champion grandmother lonesome for her grandchildren.  Esther remembers stories her Grandmother told her about living up in North Dakota.  She said that she did not need clothespins because the laundry would just freeze to the line.  She told a story about her grandfather traveling home from the store with a beef and half a hog when he had trouble with his horse.  He was set on by wolves and wound up feeding the whole half of hog, a piece at a time, to the pack of wolves before he made it home.   Practically every Champion can remember a story that a grandparent told.  What a treasure!  Champions are exhorted to share these gifts, perhaps around the stove at Henson’s Store over on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  Raymond and Esther live up at Marshfield.  They stay busy in their own neighborhood, but every once in a while they make it to Champion.  It cannot be too often.

          For numerology enthusiasts a birthday on 02-01-2012 seems like fun.  Linda’s husband is kind of an enigmatic character and it is hard to tell if he has fun.  He mostly expresses himself in monosyllables. Now, Zack Alexander enjoys that birthday too and it is a sure bet he has more to say.  He has parents and grandparents who flat know how to celebrate.  February second (02-02-2012) also has some excitement about it.  It is the day old Punxsutawney Phil  comes out to sing happy birthday to Judith Sharon Parsons, Angie Heffern (Zack’s Aunt Angie), Charlene Dupree, a  fifth grade girl named Jasmine,  and Boris Yeltsin who will be 80 this year and Clark Gable who would have been 110 years old.  Phil also is known for making weather predictions, but these days the weather is so unusual that Champions will not hold him to any hard and fast prophesies.  Skyline School eighth grader, Zachariah Baker, will be 13 on the 3^rd of February and since that is a Friday this year, the whole school will be jumping with excitement.  People who know him say he is a nice kid, a good student and maybe a little mischievous.  That is exactly what is expected of a young man his age.   Champion!

          A conversation between Craig Schneider and Tom Appelbaum resulted in a welcome home parade for Iraq War Veterans in St. Louis on Saturday.  Reports are that there were tens and tens of thousands of people there waving flags and cheering as about six hundred Veterans walked along the down town streets.   They said that war hardened Veterans were brought to tears at the outpouring of Love and Gratitude.  Champion!

          There was a lovely article in some of the local papers about Esther Wrinkles recently and Esther said that it was factually accurate for the most part.  The inaccuracies were primarily about the quilt, the photo of which accompanied the article.  Esther hand pieced it and the workmanship is up to her excellent standards.  She wanted people to know that it is machine quilted and will stand up to years of use and will still be a keepsake heirloom for the lucky winner.  It has a burgundy colored lining and is executed in burgundy, rose, blue and white.  It is on display at Henson’s Grocery and Gas on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  Tickets are available there and from any Auxiliary member.  The drawing will be held at the Chili Supper, March 3rd at the Skyline School.    All proceeds from the quilt will go to benefit the Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department for which Esther has been a Champion from its very beginning.  She is beginning to feel a little better over her bronchitis.  That is good news. She says she will have to hold off on going for the Thursday pot-luck music at the Vanzant Community Center.  She says it looks like they are getting a good crowd every time and she is anxious to go again.  Champions say, “You go, Girl!”

          Gardeners are not looking at the calendar so much as they are at the weather and the condition of the garden.  Some are anxious to get started in spite of the admonition that it might be early.  Linda’s Almanac will soon be available to assist gardeners.  Lem and Ned are much in demand these days for their good company and their zealous affection for garden work.  The winter has spared many a fine turnip so these brutes will be well fed of their favorite victual as they dig and fork and shovel what needs it.  They will soon be returning from their internship at the Good Intentions Paving Stone (GIPS) research facility and factory where they have been testing the efficacy of the biodegradable paving stone made primarily from vegetable matter like turnip greens and pig weed.  This is the outfit that has been responsible for the paving of many well know and much used roads all over the world.  The Champion adventurers will have some stories to tell.  Will they sing that song, “Why did they leave the plow in the field and look for a job in the town?”  Lem and Ned will best be remembered for their succinct definition of the financial concept of ‘derivatives. ’    Read their complete take on the subject in the articles of November 16^th and November 23, 2009, at www.championnews.us.   It will be most interesting to learn what they have to say about the Occupy Movement.   Come home, dear boys!  It is Royce and Jo Henson who ought to be coming home.   You have been away too long.   A beautiful spring day, even if it takes place in the winter time, would be a fine time to see that little yellow sports car come sashaying through the square.  Perhaps Royce would guest speak at the Saturday Philosopher’s Club gathering.  What a Champion notion! 

          At a local Thrift Store for twenty five cents, a Champion picked up a pristine copy of the Complete Poetry and Selected Prose by Walt Whitman.   Her Champion spouse said that he always thought of Whitman as being kind of a cheerleader and overly sentimental.  Even if that were true, and she does not at all agree that it is, she thinks, “What’s wrong with that?”  Express your opinion at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or at Champion at getgoin.net. Better yet, express it in person.  Come on down to the nice flat place at the bottom of several hills, at the end of the pavement, at the conjunction of several roads, on the wide an luxurious banks of Old Fox Creek to Champion!  Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—January 23, 2012

          Sunday found Champions responding to the slowness of the arrival of the weather front that was promised and described as a warming trend.  Stillness marked the damp winter day when the earlier greens turned to gold on the ground and gray as the fog took the tops of the hills away and left sycamores reaching white down from sky to ground and from ground to sky. This is a visually stimulating time of the year in Champion.  Then Monday morning dawned bright and clear, not too cold, and everything again took on that optimistic gleam.  It is Champion. 

          Someone asked about that poem that celebrates the goodbyes.  It was written by Bernice Morgan of Marshfield and dedicated to the Krider family.  Read the whole thing in the archives at www.championnews.us.  Find it in the January 25^th post of 2009.  The January 25^th posting for 2010, includes good news from the Brixie clan that Jacob Kyle Brixie was born Monday evening, January 18^th, 2010 at 6:01 to Jana and James Brixie.   His older sister Jenna Kateland is now four and a half years old and it has indeed turned out that there has been enough love and fun to go around.  (There was speculation way back then that this would most likely be the case.)  There was a party for Jacob on Saturday the 21^st and most of the same rowdy crowd showed up for that shindig that will be hanging around when the ‘old man’ celebrates his 40^th on the 30^th!  “May your horse never stumble.  May your cinch never break. May your belly never grumble and your heart never ache!”  This is a birthday wish for persons who do not too much like the limelight, but like cowboy birthday sentiments.  It is also a wish for young Billy Collins who will celebrate his 13^th birthday on the 24^th.  He is a seventh grader at Skyline School.  He enjoys all kinds of sports, especially basketball and soccer and he is learning to play the piano.  Miss Brooke Johnson will be six on the 26^th.  She likes to sing and had a solo at the Skyline School Christmas program where she attends kindergarten with her cousin Rowdy.  Old Champions remember their own sweet school days and cast their thoughts to these young ones now sometimes with envy of their youth and sometimes with gratitude for not to have to go through it all again.  It is encouraging to see how many Old Champions are stepping up to support this little school that is the closest thing to their own country school experience that will ever be again.  The Skyline R2 School Foundation is beginning to see some good donations come in.  As years go by, the school stands to benefit significantly in its literacy and technology programs due to the generosity of nostalgic alumni of little rural schools.  Zack Alexander’s mother attended Skyline.  She will have her birthday on the 27^th.  She is somewhere well past 40 now and not suffering any loss of joie de vivre.   Perhaps this is because she has such a handsome husband and an exceptionally good looking and smart child, or because her Champion upbringing gave her the confidence to express her own intelligence, the matriarchal inheritance of prodigal sarcasm notwithstanding.  Champions applaud all celebrants no matter the cause!   

          Champions are applauding their returning Veterans and extending to them Love and Gratitude.

          Champions in Edinburgh, Scotland are seeing sunset at about half past four in the afternoon these days.  It is coming up a couple of minutes earlier there, as well as here, every day and so before long the days will be significantly longer and then shorter again, etc., ad inf.   This Champion is in a good position to be able to see the Northern Lights that are said to be being spectacular these nights.  Of course, Edinburgh is a huge city with lots of light pollution, so he might have to go up to the Highlands on a clear night to get a real view.  It has been reported that the solar storm that causes the visual penomenum of the arora borialis  is of such magnitude that the effect should be easily visible from Champion latitudes.  That would require a clear night here.  It could happen.  People who watch these occurences for a living say that the storm is huge but that it will pass North of the Earth and that Earth is in no danger.  They do say that there could be some minor interferrence with satellites and perhaps some power glitches as the magnetic field of the planet is disturbed.   The Chinese New Year is being celebrated this week.  The Year of the Dragon is portentous of very good luck, they say.  Champions are ready.  There are various predictions for gloom and destruction this year as per the Mayan calendar and certain miscalculating evangelical prognosticators, but Champions stay focused on the Bright Side.  

          Esther’s plant is a beautiful Sego Palm.  No one has taken credit for the gift, so it is still a mystery plant.  It adds a nice tropical feel to Esther’s house and she has very much been enjoying it, but she would still like to know who shared the lovely thing with her.  She has been fighting off some bronchitis and so has been staying close to home.  Better weather will see her out and about again and Champions will be glad.  Maybe she will be in fine enough fettle to enjoy the Thursday pot luck jam session over at the Vanzant Community Center.  One old Champion girl has so many cardinals in her lilac bush that she is trying to think of all the songs that talk about red birds.  She can think of several songs about lilac bushes. No doubt some of those many musicians can come up with some for her.  Thursday is the day for the Old Biddies to get together at the Mansfield Community Center for their monthly bridge game.  Thursdays are busy days.  Champion! 

          The Saturday Philosophy Club had its regular meeting in the Club Room at Hensons’s Grocery and Gas, which is better known to some as the Recreation of the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  The round table fills up first since the idea is that no one can be cornered into saying something that he might regret or, in certain cases, telling the truth.  It is a lively group and membership seems to be limited only to those present.  Describe your philosophy or send your red bird songs to Champion at getgoin.net or to Champion Items at Rt. 2, Box 367 Norwood, MO 65717.  Come down to the broad and wooly banks of Old Fox Creek for the kind of sightseeing that allows for the development of a tranquil, benevolent, lighthearted, compassionate, and appreciative philosophy. Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—January 16, 2012

           There is no denying that Champion is a rural community.  It is thriving, bustling, full of energy and purpose and “ready to every good work.”  It is also quite green even with the deciduous trees bare and the flower beds fallow.  Pastures take on the appearance of an antique velvet coverlet that may have been a tapestry of gold and emerald at one time now softened, muted and speckled with brown spots here and there.  The wintertime pastoral scene has an underlayment of solid good earth that speaks of a sound past, a pleasant present, and a bright future—Champion!

           A Champion writes, “Dear Aunt Nellie,  Our flimsey little family grapevine has finally let me know that you are yet living and that you are vigorous and productive.  I pray this is true and that you are enjoying beautiful days.  As my generation of the family ages we often think of the many we have lost.  It is a wonderful thing when we realize at last that we have not really lost our dear ones because what they have given to us is still with us.  One time I told Uncle Doc that one of my best childhood memories was lying on a pallet in the front room of Grandmother and Granddaddy’s house listening to him and my folks out on the porch talking into the night.  There were no lights on in the house and their voices and low laughter were soft but clear over the creak of the rockers.  I held my breath to hear every word and drifted off to deep sleep.  He said that when he was with the kids on the pallet, it was your voice and Aunt Eavvie’s that he listened for and I suddenly had an understanding of the continuity of family.  You are the last one of your generation on both sides of my family.  I just wanted to let you know that the gifts you have shared are still being appreciated.”  Champion!  The cold of January brings to mind the passing of  a dear Champion friend and the many good memories and lesson he left.  As the Proctor and Newberry families say good-bye to their precious one, the poem written for Lonnie Krider by Bernice Morgan comes to mind.   A line from  “My Good-bye”  goes, “So share my joy, I’m going home.  I’ve been away too long.  If you want to please me now, then sing a joyful song.”  Sometimes joy is a while in the coming as loss is such a weight.  Champions know they must wait.  Champions would comfort their dear friends.

          Reports are that Wilburn had a good birthday on the 10^th.  He did not know that he shared it with young Justin Willhite who became twelve years old on that date.  They are neighbors and one can easily enough see the similarities between the two.  They are both good with animals, both a little stubborn and both know how to have fun.  Justin might like to know that when Wilburn was about his age, he and a friend got caught eating the divinity candy that was being stored in a lady’s spring house.  He had to carry one hundred buckets of water for the lady as a punishment.  Wilburn did not say from where to where he carried those buckets of water or if his friend had to do the same, but it still sounds like quite a chore and doubtlessly a good lesson for modern day boys who probably can figure out modern day ways to get in trouble.   Champions both!

          Kyle Barker will be five years old on the 21^st of January!  He is a lucky lad with a beautiful home place and a rich framiy heritage.  He has very good looking, smart parents and a little brother named Caleb.  Most likely he is spoiled to homemade ice cream.  He has a grandfather with a huge collection of ice cream freezers and the idea that his peanutbutter icecream is prizeworthy.   Kyle and Caleb probably know all about that, but the rest of the community seems to have only the General’s braggadocio for proof.   They say it (the proof) is in the pudding (or the icecream) but it takes a timely invitation to win the prize. 

          Other birthdays—milestones to be sure—have been celebrated discreetly.  A person does not like too much the limelight.  Champions with gardening on their mind can think about starting broccoli plants on the 25^th through the 27^th.  Linda from over at the Plant Place in Norwood says they need about eight weeks to be ready  from seed to the garden.  The seed packets say to harden the plants off when they are six to eight inches tall and plant out in the garden after the danger of frost has passed.  That is early May in Champion!  Everyone will have to make his own decision about when to plant and what.  Certainly when the time is right Linda will have plenty of broccoli and cabbage and all thoses other wonderful plants for Champion gardens.  Meanwhile,  some will be glad for rain and snow on all that manure spread in the garden already.

          Linda got herself in quite a situation at the Fortnight bridge game the other night.  In concert with the Champion player,  she outscored, by 190 points, oponents from Vera Cruz and Brushy Knob who were the winners of the rubber.   It took sixteen hands to play the two games (two games is a rubber) and the hour ran late.   Keen defensive play can be every bit  as exhilirating as playing the hand.  She won the quarters which, in this instance, was the low money and the host won the nickles with the high score overall.  Perhaps some real winter weather will find more friends together playing cards.  Several will be willing to drop minor responisbilites, that is responsiblitlies of minor import, at the drop of a hat for a good bridge game or “pitch” as played by Champion rules over in the game room at the Recreation of the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in downtown Champion.   A few members of the Skyline VFD Auxiliary gathered in the conference room there on Saturday afternoon to make some prelimnary plans for the annual chili supper which will be held at the Skyline School on March 3^rd this year.  If the weather turns too bad to travel, the affair will be postponed until the following Saturday, which will be March 10.  Tickets were distributed among the members  for chances on this year’s quilt.  It is a queensize beauty, hand pieced by Esther Wrinkles and machine quilted.   This will be one of those future family heirlooms.  All the proceeds from the quilt go to benefit the fire department to help with the expenses of keeping the community safe.   Some good photos were taken of the quilt and it will be on view at Henson’s Store for inspection until the evening of the drawing, March 3^rd. 

            January’s is called the Wolf Moon and the month itself is called ‘the door to the year.’  Champions filng it open wide with welcome for whatever may come.  Love and Gratitude for the beauty of the place, for family and friends and for those dear ones passed are the prevalent expressions.  The Eighth of January is a particualrly cheerful January song and that is the way it is all through the month in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION-January 9, 2012

           The first week of the New Year found Champions out enjoying the good weather.  No complaints were registered; though there is an undercurrent of concern about when and if winter will really arrive.  Most Champions are pretty sure that there will really be some serious winter at some point.  One said that it looks like February will be colder than average and that March will be very warm and then very cold. One has a collection of old farmer’s almanacs going back for years and the lesson he has to share is that the seasons go around and round and the road goes on and on and even if the destination is Champion, ‘the journey is the thing.’  

           It is a fortunate child who has both sets of grandparents living close by.  Inevitably one grandparent becomes the favorite.  “I want my real grandmother!” shouts one such fortunate child as the less preferred grandparent attempts an awkward closeness or fumbles in some other way.  When the outburst is reported, as it surely will be, it is up to the ‘real’ grandmother to squelch that secret smile and exhibit the generosity of spirit that will forever be an example to the child.  Life gets complicated even in its sweetest moments. 

           Champions are zealous for good works.  People move to Champion just to have good neighbors.  A good neighbor will share his plenty.  One has plenty of that good fertilizer that is produced by running grain and hay through a nice thoroughbred horse.  Arrangements being made for this commodity right in the presence of others did not bring out the information that ‘some’ of them seemed to have had about this very substance from this very source having been toxic to several tomato patches in previous years.  It is spread out on the garden now and now the chit chat around the stove harkens back to those ruined gardens and the blame having been cast on the generous horseman.  So now time will tell if the ‘good stuff’ will have been a gift indeed or an expensive folly.  Thanks for the heads up, neighbors.  Thanks for the manure, neighbors.  There is a certain element of fun in watching people make mistakes, of course.  Faith in the value of organic fertilizer and a sense of humor will go along with hopes for some rain, snow and good winter weather to season the application of natural wonder between now and planting.  Champions are patient.  Seed catalogues are choking mail boxes thanks to Champion mail carrier, Ms. Ross, and before long Champions will be busy getting some of their seeds started.  Linda will probably have Cole crops up and going by the time The Plant Place and Gift Corner opens up again on the first of February.  Champions know she is there working.  Hopefully she is getting some good bridge time in too.  Playing a good hand of cards occasionally is very relaxing.  That is to say that for the moments of the play every other care is suspended. 

           A forty year resident of Champion South must be exhaling slowly as a way to reduce his aggravation at seeing the photo of a local standing beside a family heirloom tree of gigantic proportions.  The tree is indeed a marvel.  The fellow under it is the same guy who hand-shook a promise at a land deal that turned out badly.  Oh, it did not turn out badly for him.  Count on that. The lesson learned by the Champion is to be careful with whom he shakes hands over something important.  Predatory logging is an industry in itself in these parts.  A neighbor down Fourteen Highway near the Chapel Grove reports her vacant house having been stripped of its copper wiring and all the windows having been broken out.  Vigilance to neighborhood conditions is not the same thing as being nosey.  “Neighborhood Watches” are no longer just a city thing.  There was a time not so long ago when no one had a lock on the door.  Some houses were sold that had never had a lock on them or had not had a key in generations.  Times have changed.  There have always been scoundrels, but now there is danger and Champions are alert to their own safety and that of their neighbors.  People traveling C Highway need to be alert to loose horses.  There are seven of them that can be found between Evans and WW at any time.  People going to the basketball game at Skyline the other night had close calls with those horses.  They have been reported to authorities several times but as yet no action has been taken to contain them.  Be cautious, Champions.  Send solutions to local problems to Champion Items, Rt. 2 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or to Champion at getgoin.net.  Wander around the website at www.championnews.us to see what a charming community looks like. 

           “I was looking back to see if you were looking back to see if I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me.  You were cute as you could be standing looking back at me and it was plain to see that I’d enjoy your company.”  Elmer Banks said there were seventeen pickers at the Thursday Night music over at Vanzant.  It is turning out to be quite a lovely happening with musicians coming from all around the area.  This Thursday the Skyline VFD Auxiliary will have its meeting at 7 p.m. at Henson’s Store in Downtown Champion.  They will get right down to business so there will still be time to make the jam session over at Vanzant.  They will be planning the annual chili supper that benefits the Skyline Fire Department.  Volunteers are looking out after their communities—fire fighters, first responders and soldiers all put aside their own safety and convenience to serve their communities and their Nation.  Champions express their Love and Gratitude to those who serve in a variety of ways.  Any member of the fire district is welcome to come participate in the Skyline VFD Auxiliary.

           Esther Wrinkles said that she would enjoy the beautiful Mystery Plant that someone left on her porch for her more if she knew who it had left it.  She says it is in a green pan and is about two feet tall.  There are some pretty rocks on top of the soil.  Yvonne Unger brought it in the house for her when she came over with some soup and some lemon bars.  Esther is fighting off a little cold and working to bounce back after having broken her favorite little crock pot in a spill. 

           Wilburn Hutchison shares his birthday with Alexander Hamilton and a Teeter Creek Herbalist.  Champions all say “Happy Day!”  The next day Tex Ritter and Jack London share birthdays with Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh and Smokin’ Joe Frazier!  The world is just full of exiting people.  Many of them are Champions and some are just schmoes.  Sort them out around the stove at Henson’s Store on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  It is located in the exact spot where the Historic Emporium served the community for generations–on the wide and wooly banks of Old Fox Creek with its back to the cold North wind and a sunny southern exposure to the wide front porch.  Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—January 2, 2012

            “Champions stand at the portal of their new year shoulder to shoulder with optimism, purpose, tolerance, curiosity, compassion, love and gratitude.”  That was the situation with Champion at the beginning of last year.  The same rowdy crowd is at the door again this year.  Champion!  Hopefully far flung Champions in distant places will all enjoy the same excellent start to 2012.  Good luck!  New Year’s Eve found the Conference Center at the Recreation of the Historic Emporium full to overflowing with conferees.  Assessments of the general state of affairs of the world and various solutions to what are perceived as the problems flow like honey dew vine water.  It is entirely intoxicating to be a full blooded genuine resident Champion and even casual stoppers in find themselves a little tipsy for the experience. 

          Karen Freeman (Suzie) writes a post script to a charming Christmas note that says that she has never had a driver’s license, credit card, cable TV, computer or cell phone and although she lives in Texas, “they will never take the hillbilly out of me!”  Suzie must know that she is significantly more hillbilly than most Champions.  Even little shacks far back in the hills have satellite dishes on them and hunters use cell phones to keep up with each other in the woods.  Some stand around the stove at Henson’s Grocery and Gas on the North side of the Square in Downtown Champion to talk about streaming movies on their X-boxes and their Wii(s).  Even aging Generals have “Facebook” identities and some Champions hire lawyers to do all the complicated farm work that requires reading and following instructions.  While they venerate home and all the wholesome values their antecedents embodied, Champions lean forward to the future to embrace technology and the world.  The name “Champion” requires an inclusive attitude but Champions are generally (for the most part) quite selective about what all they include. 

          A neighbor from over at Brushy Knob says that people eat crows.  He offers that song about “four and twenty black-birds baked in a pie” as evidence.  Of course, Champions understand dietary preferences.  Quail and dove are tasty, not to mention duck, turkey, chicken and an occasional goose.  Still, ‘eating crow’ has the connotation of being forced to admit having made a mistake and having to acknowledge it humbly (Mrs. Ross).  Champions know that it is really just a cultural prejudice that limits culinary possibilities. Crows and their close relatives are scavengers and so some have a revulsion to eating them.  Others decline to consider eating animals that are smarter than some people they know.  Last year there was concern about the five thousand Red Wing Blackbirds that had fallen from the sky in Arkansas.  This year only about one hundred dead birds were found on New Year’s morning.  Perhaps the ‘ban’ on fireworks in that area was effective (to the extent that it enjoyed compliance) or perhaps there were just fewer birds to start with. “Oh! The moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing.”  It is a beautiful song, if sad.   On the way to town the other day a Champion heard “On the banks of the Ohio” on the KZ88 Radio program “Roots and Branches.” The program comes on from ten a.m. until noon on Thursdays and on Sunday afternoons from two until four.  One old song leads to another and then another, so that a person does not want to get out of the car even when he has reached his destination.  Look for a connection to KZ88 Listen Live at www.championnews.us. 

          A clean slate is a Champion thing.  Starting over every day with the chance to do it all better is about as Champion as it gets.   As Champions age the nature of their New Year’s Resolutions change.  This year one resolves to enjoy her rest more.  She plans not so much to nap more as she plans to approach her night’s sleep with appreciation for the restorative qualities and for the opportunity for gentle reflection as she drifts off into the arms of Morpheus.   She will not take her fears or wounds or strife with her as she approaches her pallet—just the sylvan sifting of peace and gratitude for the day’s joy. 

          Johnny is marching home!  Hurrah!  Hurrah!  Many soldiers are returning from tours of duty in the dangerous parts of the world.  Many were wounded and many of those wounds are not visible.   Honoring and caring for the American sons and daughters who were asked by their Nation to sacrifice their youth and in so many cases their bodies and lives is an obligation not to be taken lightly.  Fortunately Veteran’s organizations like the VFW are in place to help.  Pete Proctor over at the VFW Post 3770 in Mountain Grove and Larry Morrison over in Ava at the VFW Post 5993 have real zeal for stepping up and lending a hand.  Any Veteran or family of a Veteran can look to these organizations of friends and neighbors for encouragement, information and understanding.  Champion!  

          Old fashioned pen and ink on paper thank you notes are being sent through the mail to friends and family for thoughtful gifts and thoughtful thoughts over the holidays.   Thank you notes are going out too from the Skyline R-2 School Foundation to those generous individuals who have already donated to help get it going.  Literacy programs and technology updates at the school will be the immediate beneficiaries of Foundation funds.  For more information about the Foundation contact the school or stop in at Henson’s Grocery and Gas in Downtown Champion where literature is available.   Stand around the stove for a little while to soak up some warmth and some ambiance. 

          The farmer’s almanac indicates that Champions will enjoy average temperatures this winter and that it will be very wet.  Weather patterns will be determined by activities of La Nina over in the Pacific Ocean.  States just to the South of Champion are predicted to have a mild and also a very wet winter.  Some Texans will be glad to hear it.  Garden planning has begun in earnest now.  Decisions being made now will affect the pantry in September.  Champions rely on Linda up in Norwood and on each other for inspiration, information and sometimes other things.   Good neighbors are a gift.

          Word is that Louise and Wilburn are doing well.  Sue and Manuel Hutchison were good company in from Iowa over the holidays and there is a steady stream of visitors in and out.  Ruby Proctor is doing well according to rumors.  Esther Wrinkles said that she had heard as much from mutual friends recently.  Report good rumors to Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or to Champion at getgoin.net.  The big excitement these days is the musical pot luck gatherings at the Vanzant Community Center every Thursday.  People bring a dish or a donation and show up ready to eat about six o’clock and then settle in for lots of good music.  Toe tapping music is a sure antidote for Cabin Fever.  Champions venture over toward Vanzant on Thursday evenings to hear “Put another log on the fire.  Cook me up some bacon and some beans,” but the rest of the time they keep the winter doldrums away just by strolling the broad pleasant avenues of their Historic Hamlet soaking up the healthful benefits of Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—December 26, 2011

           The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is a special time in Champion.  The stresses and pressures of having to have been good are all over; sweet connections with family and dear friends have been reconnected; a few days of wonderful left-overs ease the cooking burden and a little time can be alloted to reflection over the past year and visions for the one ahead.  The Champion Parade Committee (CPC) has been busy at work and Champions are unanimous in their Gratitude for such grand displays.  They are grateful that Monday’s freezing drizzel did not come on the Christmas Eve Parade and grateful that it is likely to be long gone before the next parade.  Frequently enough the New Year’s Day Parade has a little wobbly start on account of the General having celebrated his birthday the night before.  A little freezing drizzel goes a long way so Champions feel very blessed and will just hope that the General stays dry and is able to deport himself better this year.  Champions are grateful for even small blessings.

          “Why do we need to be shooting Brother Crow?”  inquired one Champion when she heard about a hunter in the Mark Twain National Forrest having been shot in the leg by an area resident.  “Crows are very smart, you know, and they live in large extended families.  Aunts and Uncles take care of nieces and nephews.  Grandparents and great grandparents are vigilant for the young.  They may occupy the same home territory for many generations.”  Concern for the condition of the wounded hunter and the disposition of the resident who did the shooting notwithstanding, she asks, “Must we shoot crows?” Answer this question or pose one at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367 Norwood, MO 65717 or Champion at getgoin.net..

          “Why is water blue?”  The answer has to do with nuclear motions in the molecules as red photons excite vibration. “To our knowledge the intrinsic blueness of water is the only example from nature in which color originates from vibrational transitions,” says an expert from Dartmouth College.  Anyway it is thought that water exposed to sunlight through blue glass takes on certain qualities and that those qualities can be utilized by people who drink the water.  Water that has spent three days in the sunlight in a blue bottle is said to have some excellent benefit to the health of the body and the mind and the spirit.  It could not hurt.  Some of the “Old Biddies” bridge club are excited about the idea and are determined to try it out.  Some will write “Love and Gratitude” on their bottles to see what happens.  Expect a full report sometime after the fourth thursday in January.  The holdiday game at the Mansfield Community Center on the fourth thursday of December was a delight. The cards ran hot and cold among the three tables to a river of laughter and good cheer.  Sensable bridge players enjoyed a salad luncheon topped off with chocolate salad and cheesecake salad. 

          Young Jacob Coon shares his birthday with Mrs. Esther Howard on January 3^rd. Esther Howard will be home in Marshfield partying down with her family and friends.  “I wish you all the joy that you could wish!”  That is how Shakespeare said “Happy birthday!”  Champions echo the thought.   They may be separated in age by seventy or eighty years, but Esther and Jacob each have a sparkle in their eyes and a certain attittude that smacks of fun and surprise, a mischevious quality that is endearing.  Jacob will celebrate his special day by going back to school.  The “Make and Take” event drew a big crowd on Tuesday the 20^th.  The cafeteria at the school was burgeoning with clever crafters, Moms and Dads and grandparents. They left with handsfull (handfulls) of pretty homemeade ornaments and excited optmism for Christmas. The Skyline R-2 School Foundation also had a presence there.  President Patricia Blasius and school board member, Tim Scrivner, were distributing information about how the foundation works and talking with excited parents about a fishing tournament to benefit the foundation in the spring.  It all goes to benefit this wonderful little school and its one hundred young people—Jacob and 99 of his friends.  Champion!

          It is a most pleasant, if rare, event when that Tennessee contingent of Champions are in town at the same time as Uncle and Great Uncle Harley.  Closeness has not all that much to do with geography, but it is a delight when paths cross.  Barbara stayed home to hold down the fort in Elmwood while Harley and friends sit around the stove in the conference room of the Historic Recreation of the Original Emporium located on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  They enjoy a cup of Joe and settle the problems of the outside world.  One could say, “Oh! To be a fly on that wall!” but the weather is too cold for flies and the building is too well constructed, appointed and maintained to accommodate such.  A person would just have to go there and hope that his very presence does not too much change the nature of the conversation.  When one particular Champion enters, the place falls in to a stone cold silence.  “Not for publication!” they say or, “News flash!”  For example, “a little bird” informs Champions that their mail carrier is Karen Ross, not Karen Goss, not Karen Doss.  It is Champion’s good fortune that dear Ms. Ross is willing to crisscross the chaos of Route Two delivering treasures, necessities and dross with never a delay and never a loss.  She may well have noticed moss in place of holiday appreciation in some mailboxes but in Champion hearts she shines with a high gloss.  Thank you, Ms. Ross.  Karen is beginning to stuff mailboxes with seed catalogues again.  Early birds will be starting seeds soon.  Linda and Charlene have the Plant Place and Gift Corner closed for January, but they are there working and always are willing to answer questions and to be of whatever help they can be to local gardeners.  Almanacs will be hitting the streets soon and the anticipation and excitement of gardening will begin again.  Champion!

          Goldie’s house is gone again.  Just up the hill from the confluence of Fox Creek with Clever Creek is a little home site that is once again just a site.  Long years ago it was the home of Goldie Dooms.  She had been a Lambert and was born and raised in Champion.  She passed away a long time ago and a family bought the place and added on to her little house.  That house burned and the people moved away.  Another house was built and then as a part of difficult circumstances became vacant.  In these parts it has not been unusual for a vacant house to burn.  This one was burned purposely on the orders from the bank that now owns it.  The little house had been open to animals and vandals for some time and had become a blight on the property.  Now just the little well house sits on the property.  It has been cleaned of all debris and is indeed a very attractive site again now in an amazingly beautiful part of the world.  Champion!

          Sherry Bennett, upright bass player from Ava, posted some great pictures of the weekly Thursday Night Vanzant Community Center Jam on the internet.  Esther Wrinkles says that it is quite a nice thing.  It is a pot luck dinner and people arrive planning to eat about six and then the music starts.  She said that there were about fifty-six people there last time and it looks like it is going to be a regular thing.  Esther is a vital part of the community (though rumor has it that she could use a new crock pot). She has made arrangements for the musical entertainment for the Skyline VFD Chili Supper to be held March 3, 2012.  The quilt that she hand pieced will soon be on display at Henson’s Gas and Grocery.  Her quilts have brought in a lot of money for the fire department over the years.  This one is a beauty.  Get a good look at it on your next trip to downtown Champion.  “We’ll sing of the old and we’ll sing of the new” in downtown Champion where hearts are light from Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—December 26, 2011

           The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is a special time in Champion.  The stresses and pressures of having to have been good are all over; sweet connections with family and dear friends have been reconnected; a few days of wonderful left-overs ease the cooking burden and a little time can be alloted to reflection over the past year and visions for the one ahead.  The Champion Parade Committee (CPC) has been busy at work and Champions are unanimous in their Gratitude for such grand displays.  They are grateful that Monday’s freezing drizzel did not come on the Christmas Eve Parade and grateful that it is likely to be long gone before the next parade.  Frequently enough the New Year’s Day Parade has a little wobbly start on account of the General having celebrated his birthday the night before.  A little freezing drizzel goes a long way so Champions feel very blessed and will just hope that the General stays dry and is able to deport himself better this year.  Champions are grateful for even small blessings.

          “Why do we need to be shooting Brother Crow?”  inquired one Champion when she heard about a hunter in the Mark Twain National Forrest having been shot in the leg by an area resident.  “Crows are very smart, you know, and they live in large extended families.  Aunts and Uncles take care of nieces and nephews.  Grandparents and great grandparents are vigilant for the young.  They may occupy the same home territory for many generations.”  Concern for the condition of the wounded hunter and the disposition of the resident who did the shooting notwithstanding, she asks, “Must we shoot crows?” Answer this question or pose one at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367 Norwood, MO 65717 or Champion at getgoin.net.

          “Why is water blue?”  The answer has to do with nuclear motions in the molecules as red photons excite vibration. “To our knowledge the intrinsic blueness of water is the only example from nature in which color originates from vibrational transitions,” says an expert from Dartmouth College.  Anyway it is thought that water exposed to sunlight through blue glass takes on certain qualities and that those qualities can be utilized by people who drink the water.  Water that has spent three days in the sunlight in a blue bottle is said to have some excellent benefit to the health of the body and the mind and the spirit.  It could not hurt.  Some of the “Old Biddies” bridge club are excited about the idea and are determined to try it out.  Some will write “Love and Gratitude” on their bottles to see what happens.  Expect a full report sometime after the fourth thursday in January.  The holdiday game at the Mansfield Community Center on the fourth thursday of December was a delight. The cards ran hot and cold among the three tables to a river of laughter and good cheer.  Sensable bridge players enjoyed a salad luncheon topped off with chocolate salad and cheesecake salad. 

          Young Jacob Coon shares his birthday with Mrs. Esther Howard on January 3^rd. Esther Howard will be home in Marshfield partying down with her family and friends.  “I wish you all the joy that you could wish!”  That is how Shakespeare said “Happy birthday!”  Champions echo the thought.   They may be separated in age by seventy or eighty years, but Esther and Jacob each have a sparkle in their eyes and a certain attittude that smacks of fun and surprise, a mischevious quality that is endearing.  Jacob will celebrate his special day by going back to school.  The “Make and Take” event drew a big crowd on Tuesday the 20^th.  The cafeteria at the school was burgeoning with clever crafters, Moms and Dads and grandparents. They left with handsfull (handfulls) of pretty homemeade ornaments and excited optmism for Christmas. The Skyline R-2 School Foundation also had a presence there.  President Patricia Blasius and school board member, Tim Scrivner, were distributing information about how the foundation works and talking with excited parents about a fishing tournament to benefit the foundation in the spring.  It all goes to benefit this wonderful little school and its one hundred young people—Jacob and 99 of his friends.  Champion!

          It is a most pleasant, if rare, event when that Tennessee contingent of Champions are in town at the same time as Uncle and Great Uncle Harley.  Closeness has not all that much to do with geography, but it is a delight when paths cross.  Barbara stayed home to hold down the fort in Elmwood while Harley and friends sit around the stove in the conference room of the Historic Recreation of the Original Emporium located on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  They enjoy a cup of Joe and settle the problems of the outside world.  One could say, “Oh! To be a fly on that wall!” but the weather is too cold for flies and the building is too well constructed, appointed and maintained to accommodate such.  A person would just have to go there and hope that his very presence does not too much change the nature of the conversation.  When one particular Champion enters, the place falls in to a stone cold silence.  “Not for publication!” they say or, “News flash!”  For example, “a little bird” informs Champions that their mail carrier is Karen Ross, not Karen Goss, not Karen Doss.  It is Champion’s good fortune that dear Ms. Ross is willing to crisscross the chaos of Route Two delivering treasures, necessities and dross with never a delay and never a loss.  She may well have noticed moss in place of holiday appreciation in some mailboxes but in Champion hearts she shines with a high gloss.  Thank you, Ms. Ross.  Karen is beginning to stuff mailboxes with seed catalogues again.  Early birds will be starting seeds soon.  Linda and Charlene have the Plant Place and Gift Corner closed for January, but they are there working and always are willing to answer questions and to be of whatever help they can be to local gardeners.  Almanacs will be hitting the streets soon and the anticipation and excitement of gardening will begin again.  Champion!

          Goldie’s house is gone again.  Just up the hill from the confluence of Fox Creek with Clever Creek is a little home site that is once again just a site.  Long years ago it was the home of Goldie Dooms.  She had been a Lambert and was born and raised in Champion.  She passed away a long time ago and a family bought the place and added on to her little house.  That house burned and the people moved away.  Another house was built and then as a part of difficult circumstances became vacant.  In these parts it has not been unusual for a vacant house to burn.  This one was burned purposely on the orders from the bank that now owns it.  The little house had been open to animals and vandals for some time and had become a blight on the property.  Now just the little well house sits on the property.  It has been cleaned of all debris and is indeed a very attractive site again now in an amazingly beautiful part of the world.  Champion!

          Sherry Bennett, upright bass player from Ava, posted some great pictures of the weekly Thursday Night Vanzant Community Center Jam on the internet.  Esther Wrinkles says that it is quite a nice thing.  It is a pot luck dinner and people arrive planning to eat about six and then the music starts.  She said that there were about fifty-six people there last time and it looks like it is going to be a regular thing.  Esther is a vital part of the community (though rumor has it that she could use a new crock pot). She has made arrangements for the musical entertainment for the Skyline VFD Chili Supper to be held March 3, 2012.  The quilt that she hand pieced will soon be on display at Henson’s Gas and Grocery.  Her quilts have brought in a lot of money for the fire department over the years.  This one is a beauty.  Get a good look at it on your next trip to downtown Champion.  “We’ll sing of the old and we’ll sing of the new” in downtown Champion where hearts are light from Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—December 19, 2011

          Having food and raiment, Champions are therewith content.  They do good, are rich in good works, ready to distribute and willing to communicate.  The pre-Christmas condition in Champion is but little changed from the rest of the year.  Festive lights and lighter than average hearts make Champion the ideal holiday destination.  Ho Ho Ho or www.championnews.us for a look on the Bright Side!

          Ethel McCallie writes, “You can’t imagine how much I wish I were one of you [Champions].  Your area is one of the most beautiful places in good old Douglas County, Missouri, ‘The Land That I Love,’ home of the good, humble, nice and free.”  Champions enjoy Ethel’s letters and will be most pleased any time their sweet Okie friend will be able to come and sit a spell.  Alice (Proctor) McClure writes from Cincinnati, Iowa and says. “Keep up good work!  Thank you for doing my family vacation last August.  We all enjoyed our trip to Missouri—Champion that is.”  Word is her sweet sister-in-law, Ruby Proctor, is well and enjoying the holiday season. One of Ruby’s boys was in town over the week end.  He lives in West Plains and said that it is the only town he has ever been in where a person could get a tick on the court house square.  He meant ‘big town’—Champion notwithstanding.   Suzie (Karen) Freeman (of Wesley and Suzie Freeman, McKinney, TX) says “Howdy from North Texas.  I read your Items and keep up with what is going on there.  Here is a song out of an 1800‘s songbook (Wait for it!) I got from my grandmother, Mamie Bryant.  My Mother-in-law is Helen Freeman who lives in Norwood.  I went to school with a lot of the people you mention in your Items.  Amy Collins was our next door neighbor in Mtn. Grove, when we lived across from the Shoe Factory.  Barbara Proctor Cooper and I graduated the same year.  My Father, Ben Long, was born in Norwood, August, 1896.  His brother, Jim, lived there all his life until he passed away.”  She goes on to wish all Champions the best of the holidays.  [It would interest some to know if Mr. Long was kin to Bill Long of Bill and Crenna Long of North Norwood.  Bill is from Haleyville, Alabama (named for the comet) and was a construction roughneck passing through Mansfield Town when he met Crenna.  Now he and Crenna have just had their 45^th wedding anniversary on December first.   They enjoyed a trip to Lebanon for dinner and shopping].   These letters from Ethel, Alice and Suzie all go to lift the spirit of the place.  Beautiful handwriting on paper with ink, wonderful sentiments, and the generosity of the time it takes to actually sit down and write make them rare and precious gifts.  Champions are Grateful! 

          Skyline School students presented a lovely program for parents and the community on Tuesday evening.  The program was dedicated in loving memory of Dane Solomon.  Billy Collins and Gavin Sartor each played piano solos, “The Chimes” and “Jingle Bells” respectively.   K. Collins then did a clog dance to the music of “Feliz Navidad.”  Preschoolers and kindergarteners joined up to sing “Up on the Housetop,” “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”  First, second and third grade sang “Little Drummer Boy,” “Rock n Roll Snowman” and “The Holly and the Ivy.”  Everyone else, fourth through the eighth grade sang “Carol of the Bells,” “Sing We Now of Christmas,” “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch” and “On a Starlit Night.”  It is easy to see from the choice of music just how the evening went.  Ask anyone who attended to get a smile and a good report.  More school programs are scheduled during the next few days.  There are being some good reports concerning community response to the Skyline R2 School Foundation.  It looks like people are starting to make some financial contributions that show support for this quality little country school.  Certain families and businesses operate on an annual budget, so the Foundation will do well to visit with good their neighbors at SeMaNo, White River Electric Cooperative and any number of other good neighbors after the first of the year.  The season for giving is perpetual in Champion!

          Those Tennessee boys will be in town for a few days.  Their Mother is an esteemed alumnus of the Skyline R2 School.  Maybe the boys will have a chance to be in the school before it closes for the holidays just to be awed by the basketball trophies and other accolades behind glass from their Mom’s school days.  They’ll be on the farm having fun, impressing the daylights out of their younger cousins and probably dodging the attention of their Great Uncle, The General, who, it may be noted has been laying conspicuously low of late.  Champions wonder, “What gives?”

          Friends talking behind Louise’s back say that she is making good progress in her recovery and is up to washing dishes with that good right hand.  Her Skyline Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary friends miss her.  At their recent meeting Louise’s responsibilities were delegate out among three people until she is ready to take them back.  It is no surprise that it would take three regular people to do what Louise has done in her spare time.  When Wilburn is down at the Store most days, as he is leaving he says, “Well, I think I’ll go see what’s going on at Louise’s house.”  Champions all hope that what is going on is good cheer. Champions all say, “Merry Christmas to Louise and Wilburn–from the Bright Side!”  Part of what went on at the Skyline Auxiliary meeting was the designation of March 3^rd for the Skyline VFD Auxiliary Chili Supper!  What Champion fun!  Esther will provide a quilt that will be on view immanently at Henson’s Gas and Grocery in Downtown Champion on the North Side of the Square.  The Christmas lights in Champion are absolutely “Dazzling!” and the Champion Christmas Eve Parade will be on schedule.  Farmers are early risers and so the Christmas Parade in Champion will find its terminus at the foot of the reviewing stand just at opening of business on the Saturday of Christmas Eve.  Anyone wishing to be a Champion needs but to appear any Saturday (or any day).  Come early.  Watch the activities of a place where people know how to live and how to be.  It will put you on the Bright Side!

          Champions prepare.  A flue fire is not a laughing matter and so any Champion who heats with wood should know how to best prevent flue fires and then in the unlikelihood of one occurring how to respond in the most safe and judicious manner.  Different heating configurations require different approaches.  Champions are encouraged to learn the particulars of their individual system.  It has recently been observed that water-soaked newspaper will go a long way toward quelling most chimney fires since it will suppress the flame and send steam up the chimney to inhibit combustion there.  This is layman information that should be taken with a grain of salt.  Contact a local firefighter and ask exactly how you should be prepared with your specific heating system.  Use some common sense, and pay attention to the advice of knowledgeable neighbors.  In a comedy (or painful potential tragedy) you could squirt cold water on a tin roof already frozen and then slide off of it yourself, tangle your foot in a ladder and hit the ground hard.   There are any number of ways that a flue fire could play out.  “Safe not Sorry!” is a Champion admonition. 

          Veterans and those currently serving in the US Military Service are all in the best thoughts of Champions at this time of the year.  Love and Gratitude go their way from Champions every day.  Excited Champion bridge players jumped the gun on the Old Biddies game day.  It will be Thursday the 22^nd.  The ladies will share salads for lunch and be ahead of the game to start a healthy new year.  Bridge players are cool. 

          The first verse to “The Model Church,” the song sent by Suzie Freeman, says “Well, Wife, I’ve found the model church and worshiped there today.  It made me think of good old times before my hair was gray.  The meeting house was finer built than they were years ago.  But then I found when I went in, it was not built for show.”  The song is written in 4/4 time and has seven great verses.  Request a copy at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or at Champion at getgoin.net.   “The Sunny Side of the Street” is waiting for you in beautiful downtown Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—December 12, 2011

          Saturday morning broke cold and clear–a sparkling twelve degrees with the moon setting in Champion about six thirty, already gone from view when the last lunar eclipse of 2011 took place.  Perhaps the summertime eclipse coming in 2014 will give Champions a better view.   Meanwhile early birds traveling to and from town that morning had the chance to view a spectacular full moon sliding down behind the western hills.  It was all very lovely and the early risers were out in numbers for coffee and conversation in the Recreation of the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in downtown Champion.  The conversations covered a wide range of subjects, as usual, and a great deal of what was said is reported to have been entirely believable!  Any Saturday is a good one to enjoy the excitement of Champion. 

          People who believe in astrology think there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world. Horoscopes claim to predict aspects of an individual’s personality or life history based on the positions of the sun, moon, and planetary objects at the time of birth.  The whole thing can get pretty complicated.  Three people sharing the same birthday may share some characteristics but may also be very different.  Spike Jones was born on December 14, 1911, Judy T. Ing on December 14, in the early 1940’s, Shannon Alexander on December 14, in the mid 1970’s.  They all like (liked) music—Spike his own and everybody else’s; Judy—Patsy Cline and everything with human emotion; Shannon—an eclectic mix of Springfield’s own Tuck and Abney, The Chemical Brothers and Gorillaz.  They all like (liked) Johnny Cash.  All three of them are (were) great appreciators of the arts.  Spike Jones was a gifted musician with a great flair for comic parody.  He employed a lot of bells and slide whistles, horns of the “a-uuga” type, gargling and hiccupping in his recordings and kept people lighthearted and laughing during the dark days of World War II.  Judy was a multifaceted artist.  She worked as a graphic artist and photographer for the MD Anderson Cancer Research Lab in Smithville, Texas for twenty years.  She was a prolific writer and had just completed her expansive novel about a young woman making the westward migration starting out from St. Louis via wagon train.  Shannon is a photographer.  It is how he makes his living.  He thinks that life is too short and precious to spend any of it regretting not having recorded special moments properly. He has a pleasant easygoing approach that lets people feel comfortable and forget about the camera.  (www.417photoco.com). All three of these Sagittarians love (loved) children.  Spike had four children, Linda, Leslie Anne, Gina and Spike Jr.  Leslie Anne is the Director of Music and Film Scoring at the George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and Spike Jr. Is a producer of live events and television broadcasts.  Judy had two children, Sarah Gale Ing, and Jesse David Ing.  Sarah earned a full university scholarship in math and studied math while being a drama major.  She died tragically young of primary pulmonary hypertension.   Jesse is in Hollywood, a movie writer, director, producer, working as Gale Force Entertainment (www.imdb.com/name/nm1876362/) with a current movie project called “Burning Away.” (It was always a concern that Jesse might have grownup to be an orthodontist.)  Shannon has two fine sons.  Ethan is a teenager who shares his father’s very good looks and probably does not want to read about himself in a newspaper.  Zack who is just now in grade school may be one of the most photographed children in the world.  He is beautiful and bears an amazing likeness to a Champion Grandmother who now goes by the code name Bozo. Sagittarians are described as able to juggle a variety of tasks and responsibilities.  They are good natured and friendly and are always supportive of the goals and ambitions of others.  They remain enthusiastic and full of optimism no matter what the circumstance.   What Champions!

          Mail carrier, Karen Goss, is a real Champion. She keeps Champions connected to the rest of the world, to family, friends, creditors, and the news regardless of the weather. She has recently received some new family pictures of her daughter and family up in North Dakota. She had them with her when she popped into Henson’s Grocery and Gas to deliver the mail.  No wonder she likes to show them off.  The pictures were made out on a broad grassy prairie with an old barn in some of the scenes.  The emptiness of the background and the big sky just brings focus to the sweet faces of the family.  They like to come down to visit in the spring of the year to help get the garden in. Granddaughter Toni is probably six years old now, grandson Gavin is nine or close to it and the baby, Noah, is about a year old. Time flies even in North Dakota!  Their last name is Owens and they are from Minot, where their Dad is stationed in the military. They had a nice visit for a couple of weeks last April and many good memories were made, also some very tasty plum jelly by mother, daughter and granddaughter which was shared out liberally in Champion.      

          Vivian Floyd was on the phone to Champion Sunday evening finding out about the Champion website.  It is at www.championnews.us.  She had company at her house in Rogersville and wanted to take them on a cyber-tour of her old home town.  While she was still on the phone she could already be heard laughing and talking about all the pictures of the Champion School Reunions and various other entries.  This is a busy time of the year.  Tuesday will find the Ladies Auxiliary of the Skyline VFD meeting at Henson’s Store in downtown Champion.  They will start the planning for the next big thing.  It is a pleasant time of the year to get together with friends.  Linda will be over in Mansfield on Thursday with the Old Biddies playing bridge.  Bridge is a welcome break for her as she operates a seasonal business that requires year round work.  Charlene has been busy with Christmas crafts there at the Gift Corner and substitute teaching.  In a hectic holiday season it is wonderful to have local family owned and operated business to take care of staples and gift giving needs.  Spike Jones had a big hit with “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” in 1942.  About fifty years ago a little girl named Janette wrote to Santa.  “Dear Santa,” she said, For Christmas I would like a jigsaw puzzle and for everyone to be happy.”  She signed her name and then wrote a post script, “Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to all the dwarves and reindeer.”  Janette still has good wishes for ‘everyone’ and it is pleasant to know her.  Champions join her in expressing Love and Gratitude to all those who have it coming.  That seems like everyone.  Send your holiday wish list to Santa or to Champion Items, Rt. 2 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or to Champion at getgoin.net.  Come on down to the sunny side of the street—to Champion, looking on the Bright Side!