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CHAMPION—June 20, 2016

Cold Springs Road with flowers on either side

        Summer is in full swing in Champion, having arrived well in advance of the designated calendar date.  The Summer Solstice, decorated with the full Strawberry Moon, makes for exciting days for Champions who still pay attention to those things.  Father’s Day came with phone calls, cards, e-mail and facebook greetings, bar-b-que and funny gifts.  “And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon.  Little boy blue and the man on the moon.”  The lyrics from a song by Harry Chapin tell the story of a busy father with little time for his son and the son who grew up to have little time for his father.  It is a sad song that, fortunately, rarely applies to our Champion fathers.  Those fortunate enough to have fathers living yet have good examples of hard work, dedication, good habits and humor.  Remembering the old guy while he is still around is a gift for both father and child.  Fathers gone a long time or just recently departed are held close in memory for the good times–Champions.

        Jenna and Jacob Brixey are having good times.  They went to three fairs this year with nine calves, winning lots of blue ribbons.  Jacob won Grand Champion bull calf at the Wright County Junior Fair and Jenna was Grand Champion heifer calf.  Jacob thought it was the coolest thing to sleep on a cot under the stars.  Photographs provided by their Mother show Jenna and Jacob resting, if not sleeping, on the calves—great scrapbook pictures.

Jenna and Jacob at the Fair

        Up in Chicago, a baby named Waylon Stanley was born on the birthday of his great Uncle Josh on the 19th.  Congratulations all around, dear Rachael!  Linda K. Watts and Sierra Parsons share their birthdays with the Summer Solstice on the 21st.  The 22nd is a day to recognize two dynamic ladies–Elizabeth Warren and Cinita Brown.  Skyline 8th grade student, Alyssa Strong, celebrates on the 23rd and kindergarten student, Easton Shannon, on the 24th.  The 25th will find Johnny Rainbow, Wapaho Dude, partying in bear country and Sherry Bennet having a musical celebration.  Esther Wrinkles would have celebrated on the 28th.  She is a much missed member of the Skyline VFD and good friend.  The 29th belongs to Eva Powell.  She made a Sunday trip back to Champion for the first time since she moved up to Marshfield.  It was a joy to see her.  (Mrs. Eva Powell, Marshfield Care Center D-2, 800 South White Oak St., Marshfield, MO 65706).  Radio personality and country gentleman, Butch Kara, also celebrates on the 29th.  He probably celebrates all the time.  Happy Birthday to all of you June bugs and Champions.

        Betty and Dale Thomas were once again the first ones in the door at the Second Skyline VFD Fish Fry.  Dale says, “Get it done and go home.”  Betty says he always likes to be early.  It is a family dynamic.  There was a slow but steady stream of stalwart regular supporters of the little rural volunteer fire department.  Keith and Sue Yeager, up from Texas with family and friends, were some of the last to arrive and seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.  It was a great meal and a good time for friends and neighbors to sit and visit.  One of the topics of conversation was the school tax levy that will come up on the August 2nd ballot.  There are a few folks who say they are all for the children, but do not want to vote for the levy without knowing exactly how the money will be spent.  School board members say it will go into the general fund.  The State does not fully fund the school and with its reduced enrollment over the past ten years there is a shortfall in funding.  Superintendent Curtis says that once the budget is balanced they can address pressing needs.  Maintenance on aging school busses amounted to $15,000.00 last year.  Safety and security updates, technology, chairs and desks are all priorities as well as being able to split class rooms so that two grades will not have to share the same teacher.  Not everyone has a child in school, but everyone benefits from an educated population.  Skyline is the smallest school in the county and it has been serving the area beautifully since the mid-1950s.  This small tax levy will only affect people in the school district and may well make the difference in the survivability of the school.  School is so often the very heart of a community.  Bless our heart.

        The longest day of the year and a full moon, with all that entails, brought an unexpected visitor knocking at the door looking for a drink of water.  Cookie Miesen-Platz was on a vagabond journey on foot up Cold Springs Road.  She had waded creeks and kept in the middle of the road, through flowers on either hand, hoping to avoid the prodigious poison ivy. She does not believe in drinking out of plastic bottles and has a beef with the Nestle Company over essentially stealing water from fragile aquifers here in the US and issues of child slavery in a number of countries in both hemispheres.  She has no reservation about asking personal questions and does not seem to know that in this part of the world politics is seldom discussed among strangers.  She sat on the porch with her glass of water and talked.  “I think nothing as it appears now will be reality when it is all said and done.”  She said that she thought that an arrangement had been made between the Clinton family and Mr. Trump that he would act as a ‘stalking horse’ and then they would just buy him off altogether.  She thinks the Grand Old Party will find a way to relieve itself of him and will then enlist Paul Ryan as the candidate.  He is young, handsome, ‘humble’ and embodies all the hyper-conservative values that scare the daylights out of moderate people–scarier even than Trump “… because,” she says, “by comparison he seems so reasonable.”  She also thinks that Senator Sanders will emerge the victor from the Democratic convention and the ultimate race will be between him and Paul Ryan.  Time will tell if her predictions are right.  Remember, if it turns out that way, you heard it first from The Champion News as told by Cookie Miesen-Platz, a wayfaring stranger.  She left with a fruit jar of water and a plan to turn onto Fox Creek Road and walk all the way to Denlow.  It was not clear where her starting point had been, but she left heads spinning in her wake.

        A sign up in the Vanzant Community Center says there will be no music there on July 7th.  The General explained that the Vanzant Picnic starts the next night so the facility will be in the midst of getting ready.  That is always a sterling event.  It is the first of the local picnics and all the others strive to be that good.  There will be music there on the 23rd and the 30th–pot luck at six then music until nine.  There was a little music on the wide veranda of the Historic Emporium last week.  It may happen again.  They will sing, “Keep on the Sunny Side, always on the sunny side, keep on the sunny side of life.  It will help us every day, it will brighten all the way if we keep on the sunny side of life” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!