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CHAMPION—September 21, 2015

The West Plains Wagon Club and the Gee Haw Wagon Club pause the wagon train in Champion for lunch and for
admirers to get a closer look. Locals visiting the wagon train are Royce Henson talking with Vernon Crow under
the Champion Bee Tree. Joyce Coonts is taking Cowboy Jack’s picture with wagon-master Coy Stone.

        The West Plains Wagon Club and the Gee Haw bunch from Viola, Arkansas pulled into town a little earlier in the day than it has in years past.  The eight wagons had set out from West Plains on Monday and made it to Champion about eleven o’clock Thursday morning.  Drivers and passengers all reported beautiful weather and a pleasant uneventful trip.  Clifton Luna has sold his wagons and mules but is still active with the club and enjoyed riding with them for a day on this trip.  At somewhere around the age of 90, Mr. Luna says this is the first time in his life that he has not owned a horse or a mule.  By the time they are home again, this train will have traveled 387 miles in 18 days.  They camped up north of Champion on Thursday and from there were headed to Mansfield, Marshfield, and Diggins, then over to the Glade Top Trail for a couple of days and on to Gainesville and beyond.  The 21st century part of their outfit is a GPS device that gives them their travel speed, elevation, temperature, a map and other things pertinent to the trip.  Cowboy Jack and Joyce Coonts and a few others came out to see the train and visit with the wagon folks.  Royce and Jody Henson traveled from Springfield for the occasion.  Royce rode with Coy Stone in the lead wagon from Champion to Cold Springs—the ‘walk of ages’ in reverse.  Maybe that is the secret to being young at heart.  These travelers are certainly a pleasant, optimistic group of people.  It is a bright spot on Champion’s calendar to have them stop through every year.

        The Starvy Creek Bluegrass Festival in Conway, Missouri was well attended by Champions this year.  Sherry Bennet posted pictures on the internet which depicted a number of favorite area musicians having a good time.  The Upshaw-Krider/Johnston sisters celebrated an early birthday there and enjoyed the show for three nights in a row.  They are probably still patting their feet and grinning.  Their birthday is not until October 4th so they will be celebrating for some while.  Sandy (Grandfather of Atticus) Chapin has a birthday on the 24th of September.  Skyline first grade student, Tristian Jeffrey, celebrates on the 25th.  Sixth grader, Dustin Johnson, parties on the 26th, the same day that Edinburgh’s Graeme Laird will have had his 44th trip around the sun.  The 29th belongs to the lovely Texan, Rebecca Heston, a great supporter of The Champion News.  Someone will celebrate on the 30th, incognito by choice.  Another shy Champion, a prominent one, shares the first of October with preschool teacher, Jana Brixey, and second grader, Lydia Harden.  Third grade student, Malachi Fulk, will have his special day on the 4th with Fae and Kaye.  Penelope Zappler had her birthday on the 21st, but somehow did not get mentioned in The Champion News.  She is a reliable regular summer visitor to Champion and a much loved one.  Have a Champion happy day everyone.

        Beautiful weather looks like it is with us for a while.  Will anyone complain?  The next few weeks will be some of the loveliest of the year and Champions are braced to enjoy every bit of it.  The Pioneer Descendants Gathering will be right in the middle of it with all its excitement.  Molasses and apple-butter, Dutch-oven cooking, and ‘curly taters’ will be some of the fascinating smells and tastes of the gathering.  Dale and Betty Thomas host this event every year to remember ancestors Tom Brown and John Burden, early settlers to this part of the world.  Live music will be provided all day by talented local bands and you are encouraged to bring lawn chairs to sit out under the spacious pavilion to enjoy the show.  There will be much to see and do.  It is going to be fun.  Along about this time of the year Bud Hutchison has a trail ride heading up in Champion and that gang out of Crystal Lake are liable to come ambling through the country any time.  It is a pleasant place in the world when a person can look up to see a string of well mounted riders going by, tipping their hats and smiling.  Wilma says that Bud had a lot work to do getting the mess cleaned up from the storm damage to their barn, but it is all done.  A good carpenter and friend helped to get it all fixed back just right.  She or Bud will have the date of the fall ride posted in Champion before long.

        The parts of local gardens that are doing well are doing very well just now, though a little rain would be timely and beneficial.  Some have stopped picking beans altogether and will just let them dry on the vine.  If beans and potatoes make a complete protein, it is sure Champions will be eating well this winter.  Fall gardening is such a pleasure after the heat of the summer.  It is nice to be out there daydreaming about next year.  Linda will be having a half-price sale all during October as she is taking The Plant Place out of business.  There will be some great bargains.  It has been lovely to have Linda’s expertise all these years to help our thumbs be green.  She was the big winner at the Fortnight Bridge Club game on Saturday.  Perhaps in retirement she will have more time for bridge.

        Macy Loveless is a 12 year old girl in Mountain Grove who is battling leukemia for the second time.  Her friends at school, her family and many in the area are keeping her in their best thoughts with hopes that she will beat it again.  She has a good attitude, a good support system and the good wishes of Champions all over.  Find “Team Macy” on Facebook for a way to help, or just google Macy Loveless and that will get you to a spot where you can make a donation to help with the extraordinary financial costs.

        It was reported that there was a good crowd at the Historic Emporium last Wednesday.  There were a few gaps in attendance, but a fine time happened anyway.  Next Wednesday the absentees will tell what they had to do instead.  Fairly often someone will bring an oddity to show, an interesting tool or device or sometimes an antique firearm.  One never knows.  From time to time politics figure into the conversations.  Politics (from the Greek, “of, for, or relating to citizens”) is the practice and theory of influencing other people and a study or practice of the distribution of power and resources.  That is lofty stuff, but well within the prevue of an informed citizenry.  Frank Zappa said that government is the entertainment arm of the military industrial complex.  Representative Jason Smith’s political image as a humble, salt-of-the-earth fiscal conservative might be up for a modification as the news that the many campaign and government trips and exotic vacations with his close friend, Aaron Schock, are being scrutinized by federal investigators looking into alleged spending abuses.  Meanwhile, some of the poorest people in the world, the Greeks, are being the most generous to the tide of refugees fleeing the tumult in the Middle East, which some may say is the result of meddling by the oil hungry western nations.  Come down to where country roads meet the pavement at the bottom of several hills on the wide, wild, wooly, welcoming banks of Old Fox Creek and share your views on local and planetary politics.  Or better yet, sing.  “Oh, it’s a long, long while/ From May to December/ But the days grow short/ When you reach September….Oh, the days dwindle down/ To a precious few/ …and these few precious days/ I’ll spend with you” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!