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CHAMPION—November 30, 2009

        Champions are generally of one mind having compassion for one another and love for their brothers, for the most part they are tenderhearted and courteous.  The opportunity to express Love and Gratitude comes every day in Champion.  While families and friends gathered to feast in the name of Gratitude, a number of old Champion couples reduced to just the two of them again, made a reduced version of their traditional festive meal just for the pleasure of the left-overs which was always their favorite part anyway—family and friends notwithstanding.  One group of revelers got up from their post feast poker extravaganza to view the Space Shuttle and the Space Station as they streaked across the darkened early evening sky northwest to southeast.  The lights were visible for about five minutes and the friends standing quiet and still all gazing at the same marvel were lost in their individual thoughts of space and time and distance and perspective.

        Old Fox continues to pique nostalgia.  Several, spurred on by Hovie Henson’s remarks, were talking about the old wire swinging bridges and the importance of schooling to the Champions of the day.  Students are back in their classrooms after the Thanksgiving break, ready to knuckle down and buckle down for that last push toward goodness just in time for Christmas.  Foster and Kalyssa Wiseman made a holiday journey to Tennessee to visit cousins Dillon and Dakota Watts.  It is exciting to see the dynamic between the older cousins and the younger ones.  The old folks smile remembering their own childhood relationships.  Meanwhile, four-year-old Eli and little sister Emerson Rose spent a few days with their Grammie down on the farm.  Harley was in the neighborhood too, so there was all manner of fun going on including an onslaught of Upshaws with everything that brings to mind.  The General has been staying pretty close to home, however, not venturing further than the Junction.  Until the furor dies down concerning his recent behavior, he’ll be laying low, hoping that pumpkin pie with whipped cream has the soothing quality to round off the sharp corners of the biting sarcasm that trips him up with an overdose of triptophan, which under normal circumstances releases the chemical seretonin in the brain that often helps to alleviate pain.  Normal circumstances do not seem to apply to General Contrarian, though he is the first to note that there is no excuse for rude behavior.  Contrition is an attractive quality that adds to the mystique of one of Denlow’s Favorite Sons.

        Another of Denlow’s Favorite Sons was Cletus Upshaw.  He was a good storyteller and a keen observer.  His enthusiasm for Denlow and Champion and the area was legendary and Champions are at a loss not to be able to run into him at Henson’s Store.  For years Champions could set their clocks by him and if there was an unkind word said, it did not come from Cletus, though he certainly knew all there was to be known about just about everything in the area.  He was proud to be a Veteran.  Most any Champion would love to roll back the clock and pry one more story out of him.  Older Veterans and younger ones now all have stories to tell and a compassionate, thoughtful, understanding listener is a Champion to them.

        Fortnight Bridge found the Champion bridge player (rather the bridge player from Champion) separated from first place by a mere 120 points! That spot belonged to the Brushy Knob player.  A lively game, hosted by Vera Cruz, was marked by a splendidly executed apple crisp and as many bid slams as unbid ones.  This indicates an effective conversation between partners in a game fraught with rules and conventions.  The Norwood player pocketed the nickels and will host the next game…in a fortnight.

        The cold weather that is on the way will be doing some good work in the garden.  It will help that nitrogen get fixed into the ground and will discourage some of those noxious pests both plant and insect types.  Still there will be a sunny day to get out there and get those okra stalks out of the ground and into the compost.  Seed catalogues are arriving in mailboxes already and the most exquisite time of planning is well underway.  Linda, over at the Plant Place in Norwood will have her work load reduced a little and always has time to visit about plants.  Charlene has been busy at area craft fairs lately displaying her many unusual handcrafted Christmas ornaments and gifts.  She adds to her repertory every year and it is always a delight to visit her at the Gift Corner.

        A cousin was remarking the other day about seeing her Uncle Al all by himself out in a big cotton field toward the end of the season.  Snow flurries were beginning as he was pulling those last boles.  He would have been 93 on his birthday which was either the 26th or 27th of November.  With a houseful of kids, it might have been easy to lose track of a birthday.  Uncle Albert had a twin brother named Gilbert, who died in infancy.  Like Elvis, there might have been some room for extra heart or extra soul when living for two.  He married an extraordinary young woman who also loved the farm.  If they had a choice between twenty short rows or two very long rows, they would take the long rows every time.  They were just that way.  Hard times, tragedy and disappointment separated them over time, but they maintained an abiding appreciation and understanding of each other and the farm.  Uncle Al sang, “Seven cent cotton and forty cent meat! How in the world can a poor man eat? Flour up high and cotton down low how in the world can we raise any dough?” Singing seems to make things easier.

        Make things a little easier with a song on the porch at Henson’s Store in downtown Champion.  Once it is out of your system go on in and stand around the stove.  It is a fixture that warms more than just the little wooden building.  It is a gathering place and a touchstone for people who long for that real feeling of home and community.  Even people who rarely go there, or have gone for the first time or who just remember being there as a child seem to feel an ownership in the experience of Champion.  Send a story about Cletus Upshaw to Champion Items, Rt.  2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or e-mail it to Champion News.  Read all the Champion news since August, 2006 at www.championnews.us.  Before that you’ll have to find a Champion to ask.  Look for them out strolling the broad and pleasant musical expanse of Lonnie Krider Memorial Drive.  They are in Champion and they are Looking on the Bright Side!