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CHAMPION—July 30, 2007

        Great news in Champion is that Foster’s parents are feeling better.  The lad spent a couple of days with his grandparents during the week while his folks recuperated.  Part of that time was spent hanging out at the store with his Granddad, Doug & Jackie learning how to spin yarns.  He helped with the hay and proved himself to be an excellent kitten wrangler.  Cousin Dillon has also been down of the farm.  He and his Mom came in from Tennessee and spent a few days while Dakota made a fishing trip to Alaska with his other Grandfather.  It is always a pleasant time to have Linda home.  She enjoys milking and her folks enjoy her company and the help.

        Neighbors over on EE had a wonderful picnic!  Saturday night it was estimated that there were four to five hundred people there!  Some one said that the Holt “UP’N AT’T” 4 H Picnic has been going on for 57 years!  The Champion community was well represented.  Some Champions have been attending for most of those years!  When a particular Mr. Upshaw was asked if he had made ice cream for the affair, he said, “Well, I offered to but they said they had had some over at Vanzant and they thought they would just pass.”  Everyone was glad to see Mrs. Esther Wrinkles there.  She is a great appreciator of the local good music and there was plenty to be had there.

        Eighteen people, Firefighters and Volunteers, met up at the Skyline Picnic grounds on Tuesday the 24^th to discuss the Picnic upcoming on the 10^th and 11th and all the work that has to be done in preparation for it.  It was good to see that the new freezer is doing it’s job so that there will be plenty of cold treats for Picnickers to enjoy.  Local merchants are being generous in donating items for the door-prize drawings.  There will be some new activities this year combined with all the old favorites.  Plans were made to cut the grass short and treat the grounds for ticks and chiggers.  The Fire Chief said he has never had a single chigger bite!  (Must be they come in multiples!)  Anyway there won’t be any of those critters around come Picnic Time!  New members and volunteers are excited to pitch in and be a part of what promises to be a lovely Picnic.  New neighbors up on the High Road on the Pleasant Ridge have a swing set in their front yard!  It will be interesting to see how many personal invitations to the Skyline Picnic will be extended to the new family in the neighborhood!  Champion is a friendly place!

        A letter arrived on the 26th from Raul!  He is Champion’s adopted soldier serving in Naray, Afghanistan.  He says,  “Dear Champion,  Well it is nice to hear that you are playing bridge.  I hope that you won.  Well sorry that I have not been able to write to you sooner.  Reason was that we were on black out (where they shut the internet and phones off).  I don’t mind the article that you posted about the letter I wrote to you.  In fact, I think it was a good thing that way people can see a little bit of the hardship that me and my Soldiers have to go through on a regular basis.  I have to say ‘Thank You’ once again for your concern of my Soldiers and me and my family.  I want to say thank you to everyone there at Champion and your supporters for every thing that you have done, to include keeping us in your prayers.  I have to say that this country is Beautiful, aside all the fighting and shooting.  My FOB is in a valley.  When the sun rises and sets the light on the mountains looks beautiful.”  He goes on to say that he will try to send pictures and that his wife and daughter will be moving to a different house soon.  He says that he and his wife are thinking of buying a house in McAllen, Texas and is wondering if anyone has any advice to give as far as what to look for and what questions to ask.  He wonders if anyone knows of a good book or website to learn about buying a house.  There are some envelopes addressed to Raul at Henson’s Store.  It just takes a regular 41 cent stamp.  His package got off to him on Wednesday, full of beef jerky, tuna, crackers and various other things.  He’ll have pictures of Champion, notes from Champions and an idea of what the community is all about.  His address is SSG Moreno, Raul / 4-319^th, TF SABER /  FOB NARAY / APO AE 09354 /  Email:  raul.morenojr(at)us.army.mil  People all over the country are reaching out to help those serving their nation in dangerous places.  It speaks well of Americans everywhere.  3,652 US Service People have lost their lives in Iraq since the conflict began, including Lawrence Parrish of Lebanon, MO who died there  October 7^th, 2006.  As of July 24^th, 2007 at least 346 members of the US Military had died in Afghanistan.  Love and Gratitude to them and to those they leave behind is a given.

        Wilburn allows that he’ll probably get a third cutting of hay in October and that he has had trouble with the hay being too thick and heavy.  It’s hard on his equipment.  Such problems!  Others are being over run with huge squashes.  Cucumbers are coming out of some Champion ears and the few ears of corn that the raccoons don’t get are just luscious.  Water bath canners are bubbling over-time and the “shh shh shh” of the pressure cookers guarantees that green beans and stewed tomatoes will fill pantry shelves.  In late winter when everything is drab and brown, these glorious summer days will be appreciated when those jars are opened.

        Granddaughter Day was a grand success!  Grandmothers and Granddaughters met at Vera Cruz on Monday afternoon just for The Fun Of It and for no other reason.  Among them were Danielle from Kansas City and Sierra from Portland, OR, who have been going to the Mill Pond with their Grandmothers most summers since they were babies.  Danielle is 12  years old and Sierra is 10 now.  They became acquainted on Granddaughter Day and learned that they have many common interests such as cats and Mardi Gras  beads.  They may become life-long friends.  Grandmothers who live too far from their Granddaughters could suffer with great bouts of loneliness and jealousy but they content themselves with observing at a little distance the joys of their Grandmother Friends.  Patients is one of those qualities often attributed to Grandmothers.  There must be some kind of trick to it.  Linda’s sister Charlene from over at the Plant Place and the Gift Corner in Norwood sent a note from Virginia where she is taking care of her Granddaughter, Olivia, while her Mother, Sherrie, who is in the US Navy, is serving on an aircraft carrier in the Middle-East.  She says, “Hi ,I really enjoyed hearing from you and reading your “Champion” articles.  I feel like a celebrity now I’m in the paper!  Alls fine here.  Olivia and I have been playing and talking and having a good time.  Of course I miss being home and she misses her Mommie.  I have been working in the yard some.  I turned over a little patch in the back yard for a vegetable patch and transplanted some tomato plants sewed a few green beans and planted some basil plants.  So you see I still have my hands in the dirt to some extent.  We’ve had a little excitement here.  They had strong wind the other day and it blew a tree down in the back yard which broke through the fence.  Of course Buddy and George immediately found the hole and now can get out of the back yard.  They don’t go far but I don’t like them running loose.  Olivia and I have made a little playhouse for her in the garage.  I have bought a shelf and a little kitchen cabinet for her a garage sales (what else).  So, we go out there quite often and she plays while I clean up my garage sale finds and price them.  I hope to be coming home with Olivia September 5.  I hope it will still be warm enough to go down to the creek with Olivia.  She talks about going to the beach and playing in the sand so hopefully we will be able to do that. .I’d better go wake up Olivia and get started on another day.  Charlene”

        “Where in the world is the Amicable Asylum of Champion?” ask a regular reader of the Champion Items.  “I been living around here all my life and I never heard of such a thing as that.”  The term was meant to describe Champion as a Friendly Place—a Sanctuary.  Living in this Beautiful Spot it is easy to forget that much of the rest of the world is covered with concrete and crowded with unhappy people.  Champions do not take their good fortune for granted.  Sometimes an Itinerant Musician will pass through spreading sweet sounds and good will, full of stories from the Big World.  It is exciting out there and he reports even handedly the miraculous and delightful things together with the dour and dreary.  He is a great, marvelous disruption and a ravenous appreciator of  garden produce!  There Is No Place Like Home.

        Clichés of all sorts, excellent disruptions of daily routine, or any kind of Trick for gaining Patients is welcome at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  Big garden bragging or any kind of Good Champion Gossip is welcome at Champion News.  Any of those things or yarns about Champion’s old timers or the old days can be spun in person at Henson’s Store…in the Friendly Refuge of CHAMPION—LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE!