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CHAMPION—December 28, 2009

        ‘Out with the old and in with the new!’  Champions understand the sentiment and welcome the New but they are careful not to get rid of the good Old things.  When folks say, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to,” they are talking about Champion.  The official CPC (Champion Parade Committee) has announced that the New Year’s Day Parade of Champions will be postponed due to the cold, the alternate date to be announced at some random time in the future.  No word has come from Spotted Hog about the Hogmanay (pronounced hog-ma-NEY) scheduled to welcome the new decade.  Spotted Hog was settled by Scotsmen, they say.  The four-day festival will start on the thirtieth this year and end on the second of January.  The music and feasting and general celebrating will likely catch the interest of the Missouri State Trouper who lives on C Highway now, so revelers beware and behave responsibly.

        Christmas found Esther’s house full again—full of family and feasting.  It turned into a comedy of errors with a protracted hunt for car keys, which turned out to be in the jacket pocketed of a visiting son.  He had gone out to the freezer to get the desert that Esther had made from the receipt that Betty Henson had given her and he had pocked the keys without thinking.  Two hours later that set of keys was discovered and then another set materialized out of a little pocket in Esther’s purse.  It is good that bunch has a sense of humor.

        Champion Betty Shelton took a tumble on Saturday and spent the night in the hospital.  At first it was thought that she had dislocated her shoulder, but it turns out that she broke her arm.  It is her good right arm that she has broken the ball right off of up at the shoulder.  She said that it would be immobilized for at least a month.  There is no good time to have this kind of accident and Champions will be pitching in to be of some help to her and J.T.  Last summer Champion friend, Charlene Dupre, suffered an almost identical injury and she has made a good recovery so there is good reason to be optimistic.  Looking on the Bright Side can be a challenge to those injured or ill at any time.  Friends are Champion

        Tennessee boys are visiting their Grandmother on the Krider Farm with Foster and Kalyssa and assorted aunts and uncles and lots of good holiday spirit.  Those big boys chip right in on the farm chores and everybody has a good time.  Harley and Barbara have fled the deep snow of the North in time for the deep freeze of Champion.  Wherever they are good times roll.

        Ruby Proctor is happy to be home and has had some good company.  Her grandson, Bryan, and his family have been visiting from Virginia where he is stationed in the military.  It had been a long time since they were ‘home’ for Christmas and this one will long be remembered as a special time.  Service families separated from each other during the holidays struggle.  Champions wish them all the best with Love and Gratitude for their service.

        Some lucky old Champions are settling in with their seed catalogues and only glancing out at the thermometer every now and then.  They know that it will get colder before it gets warmer.  Garden planning is a favorite pastime and soon Linda will have her almanac out again and Champions will be getting their hands dirty.  The seasons go round and round and seed catalogues make good reading any time of the year.

        Another note came from Hovey.  He said, “As a little kid I was terrified of the swinging bridges.  Then, as I grew older, I began jumping up and down on them making them sway.  Here’s wishing all in and around Champion a Happy New Year!”  Good wishes also came from Betty and Darrell Haden over in Tennessee.  It is a sure bet that their house will be full of music through the holidays.  For many people the little chatter that goes on inside their head all the time is mostly music.  One Champion finds herself singing “Ya Who Dore`” from The Grinch That Stole Christmas.  Funny.  Soon all those versions of “Old Hank’s High” will be showing up again.  Robert Burns wrote “Auld Lang Syne” which salutes old acquaintances and times gone by.  It was already an old song when he wrote his version down in 1722.  He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and the Edinburgh Hogmanay Street Party will feature 100,000 plus voices there all singing that song at that midnight hour on New Year’s Eve.  The hour will be six hours earlier in Champion, so anyone wishing to participate in the worldwide singing of that song can do it at six p.m. just for the joy of joining in and “We’ll drink a cup of kindness yet, for Auld Lang Syne.”  Champions will remember dear old friends and good times gone by.

        Sing that song or any other out on the porch at Henson’s Store in Downtown Champion.  It is on the North side of the Square on the Sunnyside.  Spend a moment around the stove thinking up those New Year’s Resolutions.  Declare them right there or mail them to Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367 Norwood, MO 65717.  Email any especially good ones to Champion News.  The best ones so far have been: “Be a better neighbor,” and “Lighten Up.”  The best one yet is truly Champion—“Look on the Bright Side!”