July 20, 2015
CHAMPION—July 20, 2015
Summer is for children. The creeks are full of them. Grandparents are overrun with them. Their precious days of freedom are slipping away and there is a frantic feeling that the fun must be had before time is up. Old people remember childhood summers as having been almost endless, lazy and languid. Now it is fast passing.
 Jacob Coon
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There has been a positive update posted on the condition of young Champion Jacob Coon. “He is at home now with his parents but still has a long tough road ahead of him with IV antibiotics 4 times a day for 6 weeks. So please everyone still keep up the Prayers for him and his family through this tough time of healing. Thank you everyone and God Bless all.” His Aunt Eva said that he was having visitors and that his teacher had been up to Springfield to see him in the hospital. She says he has an excellent support team. Notes of encouragement can be sent to Jacob Coon, HCR 73 Box 198, Drury, MO 65738.
 Avery Rodin
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A note from Hoovie Henson made a good report of his high school reunion and said that on the way home “we stopped in Little Rock to watch our granddaughter compete for a world title in Taekwondo. She placed fourth in sparing (in the world). She didn’t get a title, but we are very proud of her. Maybe next year. Avery is our only grandchild. She was born in Kazakhstan and became part of our family at one year and one month. I like to tell people she is competitive in martial arts because she is a descendant of Genghis Kahn (my idea of a joke.) I am totally intoxicated with her. Dawn tells me I am obnoxious and I should stop shoving her in people’s faces. I can’t help it. It’s one of my many sins. Dawn said I should put the word ‘many’ in all caps (her idea of a joke.)”
While Hoovie was in town, he stopped in at Champion just to throw his weight around. It was noted that this year he did not buy quilt tickets for the Skyline VFD fund raiser. This was most likely an oversight, as Dawn would be thrilled to win this colorful quilt, and it would be just perfect for a Texas winter. “Broken Dishes” is the name of the pattern and it is beautifully made. Hoovie can send his money to: Quilt Tickets, Henson’s G&G, Rt. 72 Box 254, Norwood, MO 65717, and his tickets will be filled out for him (name and phone number) by one of the Skyline Auxiliary members. Those folks are hard at it in the heat already getting ready for the picnic which is coming up in short order. It will be August 7th and 8th this year. John Thomason from the Howell Oregan Electric Cooperative has donated another weather radio to the fire department. It is also on display at the store and will be featured in the silent auction. Sami McCleary (417-543-4947) is gathering some interesting items for the auction and it promises to be another great success. Certainly, it is a worthwhile cause. In addition to protecting homes and property from fire, the Skyline Volunteer Fire Fighters are all first responders, trained to address health emergencies, auto accidents, and any sort of dangerous situation. The members of the fire department are also able to acquire home owner’s insurance because of the proximity of fire protection. If you are not yet a member, there will be a place to join the Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department at the Picnic. See you there!
 Madison Kimrey
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Happy Birthday to Grace Crawford who will be in the fifth grade at Skyline this year. Her birthday is on the 25th of July. Jaci Borders will be in the first grade. Her birthday is on the 27th. Woody Guthrie’s birthday was on the anniversary of Bastille Day, July 14, 1789, when the people rose up against tyranny in France. Woody Guthrie was born in 1912, and passed away in 1967. He spoke to the difficulties of his times in his music, poetry and other writing. The Great Depression was the subject of much of his work and he helped the Nation get through it. It is as if his voice continued on through Molly Ivins (August 30, 1944-January 31, 2007), an American newspaper columnist, author, political commentator and humorist. She said “What stuns me most about contemporary politics is not even that the system has been so badly corrupted by money. It is that so few people get the connection between their lives and what the bozos do in Washington and our state capitols. Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television sitcom that you can decide you don’t much care for.” Madison Kimrey is a political activist from Burlington, North Carolina. She was born in 2001. Her main focus is youth involvement in politics and particularly voting rights. She is intelligent, well informed, articulate, confident and now fourteen years old. From the Bastille to Burlington people have been steadily sharing their talents and gifts of wisdom and insight to further the good condition of their fellow men. Champions!
The Wednesday confab included some exciting stories about the practice of snapping the heads off snakes. There were numerous accounts of attempts to do it–some worse than others, but none actually declaring success. There was a fairly lively discussion of Ezra Henson as a law man and how he would chase you to the city limits. There are probably several gents around who could remember those days. There was a light turn out for the weekly get together, some of the regulars and some seldom seen. Haying, vacationing and what not have had people busy elsewhere, but they will be back. The General was not there but had this to say anyway: “It’s a superfluous fact that lunch, dinner and supper are different meals depending on the location. At home the noon meal is dinner and the evening meal is supper. When eating out, the noon meal is lunch and the evening meal is dinner. I just don’t know why some people can’t understand my illogical thinking. I hope the mayor of Dunn can back me up on this highly illusional situation.” It makes sense, oddly enough.
Linda’s Almanac from over at The Plant Place in Norwood says that the 22nd all the way through the 26th will be good days for above ground planting. There are some fall crops that will have time to produce. The creeks are crossable for now and business is brisk down at the Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square. The bees are busy buzzing around the Monolithic Bee Tree and neighbors just to the west are experiencing extra bees. They have arranged with other neighbors to have some bee boxes set up and reports are that there is much apiary activity. The broad banks of Old Fox Creek are extra wooly, having just emerged from a prolonged drenching of fast moving muddy water. The wide veranda is a good place to sit, above it all, and observe the beauty below. It would be a wonder to have Woody Guthrie out on the wide veranda, making up songs about Champion. His old guitar had scrawled across the front, “This machine kills fascists.” Probably any Thursday night there will be someone at the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam singing one of his songs, “Gypsy Davie”, “Lonesome Valley”, “Danville Girl”, “Oklahoma Hills”, “Worried Man Blues”, “The Wreck of Old 97” or any one of a hundred others. (Everyone is welcome—pot luck at six.) Music is a great purveyor of optimism. Butch Kara says, “Keep a good song in your head.” It is easy in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!
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