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CHAMPION—January 11, 2010

        Entering Champion early on Sunday Morning it was a tranquil place.  Soon the churchyard filled with cars and the valley filled with music.”

        On Monday morning Champions were delighted to report temperatures a full twenty degrees warmer than the previous morning.  It was all the way up to ten degrees and the prospect of more sunshine had spirits lifted high.  A certain numerology aficionado said that on 01-10-10 it was ten below and on the binary palindrome of 01-11-10 it was ten above.  This Champion has clearly had too many inside days and ought to be out doing good for neighbors instead of playing with numbers.

        Good neighbor Harley reached out all the way from Illinois to ask Champion sister-in-law Karen to bake a ham for Betty and J.T., which she did and then she had son-in-law, Dustin, deliver it, which he did with good cheer.  Good Cheer is almost a second name for that guy, somewhere after Kid Prank.  Children love him though, so he can’t be too bad.  Betty is making a slow recovery from her broken arm and like many has been inside for more than a week.  She said that the ham and vegetables were very good and she really appreciated the thoughtfulness of her neighbors.

        Just up the hill a way, Wilburn was having a birthday on Monday.  He’s up the hill not over it at 76.  Well, a person who would rather stay home and stack wood on his birthday than to go to town for lunch might be getting close to over the hill.  Of course, with a cook like Louise, it is easy to stay home.  They have managed to stay warm and cozy with their nice Hardy furnace though it really goes through the wood on these extremely cold nights.  Fortunately, the furnace itself is under cover so it isn’t too bad to have to tend it.  Others have been up all through these long nights feeding the fires.  Champion North’s Sharon has been out busting ice on the ponds twice a day and distributing hay for the livestock.  It was -14° at her house on Saturday night.  She uses a splitting maul to break the ice because, she says, an ax is bad to glance off.  Maybe the weight of the maul helps.  She spreads ashes on part of her drive where a spring seeps and keeps freezing slick and she says she is glad not to have fallen.  That is an easy thing to do.  Foster’s Grammy took a tumble on Sunday morning and bruised her shoulder.  A person’s feet can get out from under them quickly.  Betty Dye up at Skyline has been being cautions, as well, and so far that family has fared well.  The Griswolds are all in fine fettle with no complaints.

        Wilburn shares his birthday with Bob Leibert, herbalist neighbor from over on Teeter Creek.  Jan had her birthday on the first day of the year.  Kyle Barker and his Dad, Tom, both have a birthday this month, as does Elizabeth Johnston who celebrated with her folks on Saturday.  There is to be a new Brixey in the mix as well.  Jenna Kateland Brixie is to have a sibling soon.  Jenna will be three in August so a brother or sister is showing up just at the right time.  Miss Rachael Evans of Leichester, England celebrated her birthday on the ninth of January up in Edinburgh with Champion Sam Moses.  She’s a charming girl, a flutist vocalist, who is described as looking like a Bottechelli painting.  It is quite cold in the United Kingdom too, but they have their Love to keep them warm!

        These cold days have given some Champion correspondents the opportunity to sit down to write those thank you notes and responses to all the Christmas letters, those late birthday cards, and get well cards.  One of those is going out to Jan Townsend, Champion friend in Mountain Grove, who is making a good recovery from some brain surgery and expected to be back at the bridge table soon, perhaps by the 22^nd, which will be the Fourth Thursday Bridge Club game in Mansfield.  All her bridge friends and other friends wish her well.  Champion’s ‘swift courier,’ Karen, travels 104 miles on her route daily bringing the mail and packages and taking the mail out into the big world.  Many Champions plan their day around the mail.  Grandparents waiting for those promised Christmas pictures sometimes slam the box shut in disgust, but that is not Karen’s fault.  Those old folks need to remember how busy they were when they were young and how annoying the needy old people could be—always wanting something.  The shoe is on the other foot now and sometimes it feels like it has a broken toe inside it, though Champions are not wont to complain.  On page 184 of Jill Bolte Taylor’s book, My Stroke of Insight, she says, “When I am simply grateful, life is simply great.”

        Love and Gratitude get a lot of lip service from people who imagine themselves to be good—good people, good neighbors, good friends, good citizens.  When the soldiers come home from their service to The Nation and need a helping hand or a sympathetic ear, then will be the proof of the pudding.  Those safe and warm at home with petulant winter complaints need but to cast an eye to the military serving in the dangerous parts of the world to put their own suffering in perspective.

        Lem and Ned would say, “Turnips should be planted in the waning or decreasing moon (from Full Moon to New Moon) preferably during the first week.”  So it is too late already this month to plant turnips—too early too, but Linda’s Almanac will be out soon to keep all the gardeners appraised of the best planting days, fishing days, harvest and pruning days and days to wean or transplant.  It’s good to have a guide.  Louise said that the freezing weather in Florida may have a real effect on grocery prices.  Gardeners might have to get serious about their hobby if they expect to eat fresh vegetables this year.

        A nice phone visit from Deward’s daughter revealed that she had received separate letters from sister and brother Eva and Kenneth Henson both telling about having seen a bear in the field in front of their house when they were kids.  Their dad, Ezra, and neighbor, John Bordner, shot at it and chased it into the woods west of the house.  That was in 1950.  In 1890 some of her folks down around Forsythe would hunt bears.  Now there are a few (very few) in this part of the country again and it is a pleasure to her, as well as the current occupants of the old Ezra Henson place, to know that there are still bear around as well as the wonderful bald eagles.  Champions have plenty to celebrate.

        A Champion stepped out the other morning to find Kalyssa’s footprints in the snow and it brought to her mind that song, “I traced her little footprints in the snow.  I found her little footprints in the snow.  Bless that happy day when Nelly lost her way and I found her when the snow was on the ground.”  Several have recorded it, but Bill Monroe’s version sets the standard.  This batch of snow will soon be gone and some Champions will say, “Good riddance!”  Others will miss the clean and tidy appearance of their yards as the clutter reappears in the melting.  Voice your opinion, state your case, sing your song at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO. 65717 or at Champion News.  Unless you have a fine sonorous voice, finish your song up on the porch at Henson’s Store before you go on in.  It is the polite thing to do.  Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!