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CHAMPION–March 12, 2012

           A favorite Champion song is “May the good Lord bless and keep you, whether near or far away.  May you find that long awaited golden day today.”  When that golden day comes along Champions know it and are not want to waste a second of it.  The past’s nostalgic hold and future’s promise have little to do with what is happening now in Champion. 

          Bill Long has been working in his garden.  Every so once in a while he just goes out and plows it up to kill the weeds.  He has put in onions already and has his potatoes planted and noticed that his thornless blackberry bushes are starting to leaf out.  He is going Spoonbilling at Cape Fare with his grandson this week.   There was a great article in the recent Conservation Magazine about the process,   Anthony Ford a paddlefish angler from up at Warsaw says that all you have to have is a sixteen ounce sinker, two treble hooks and a stout pole and you can catch  a 50 to 100-pound fish. The most interesting thing he had to say about the whole thing is, “It’s always better to be lucky than good.”  As that statement relates to Bill, Crenna will have to be the judge.  She had her birthday on the fifth of the month.  Bill said she does not celebrate them anymore.  It might just be that since he forgot it, he thinks that she forgets it too.  Birthdays are funny.  Geoff, a long time Champion from over Champion East, will have his celebration on the twelfth and will be happy if the sun shines in on him on his sixty tooth birthday.  Kindergartener Patricia Maggard will have her sixth birthday on March 16^th , so it will be ten years before she is sixteen on the sixteenth.   Myla Sarginson who is in the first grade will have to wait eleven years to be 18 on the 18^thw.  Katelyn Souder will be 13 on the 19^th.  She is a sixth grader at Skyline. In just six years she will be nineteen on the nineteenth!  Time is fleet.  Champion Sam over in Edinburgh will have his birthday on the 15^th of the month.  “Beware the ides of March,” said the soothsayer to Julius Caesar.  It turns out that there are ‘Ides’ in every month…It just means the 15^th of the month.   Sam shares his day with his second cousin, Jacob Masters, of Austin, Texas, who is thirty years younger than Sam and will be nine this year.  Amazing.

          Spring Break!  What a wonderful concept!  Champions are just mad about the whole idea (in a good way), particularly when it brings long missed children from distant places.  There will be long quiet days ahead, days in a row when the phone does not ring and the mailbox yawns empty, but this week is full of giggling, laughter, lots of drums and music, much exploring, gardening, storytelling, friendship bracelets, violin solos, cookie baking and bread making, popcorn, games and games of UNO and scavenger hunts together with great art works.  Champion is in a whirlwind of girls!  There are pick-up truck loads of them descending on the place. Champion indeed!

          A good rain is just what this part of the world needed to squelch the fire danger.  The end of last week found Champion North ablaze.  It is possible that the very high winds broke limbs that broke electric lines that sparked dry brush and started the whole thing.  Whatever the cause, the Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department (yea!) and the Missouri Conservation Department (yea!) were able to control it.  Most all of the property formerly known as the Orville Hicks place on the East side of Cold Springs Road was scorched and blackened.  That may be about fifty acres.  Fortunately, there were no homes damaged, though some were in the path, and homeowners are grateful that trained, knowledgeable, and brave volunteers and professionals will put themselves in danger to protect the lives and property of people in the community.  They are doubtlessly pleased for the rain to soak things thoroughly enough to give them some respite from firefighting without so much rain that water rescues are the order of the day.  The weather has been unusual all over the world recently, and while some may still be of the mind that this is not ‘global warming’ or ‘climate change’ it is certain that hardly anything is like it used to be.  Champions keep a weather eye out and stay Grateful.

          When the sun hit the garden Monday morning, the peas began to emerge from the ground.  Look for Linda’s Almanac online at www.championnews.us or at The Plant Place in Norwood, or at Henson’s Grocery and Gas over on the North Side of the Square in Historic Downtown Champion.  The Almanac gives a good day by day guide for when it is best to plant root crops, above the ground crops, flowers, and seed beds; when it is best to transplant or fertilize or harvest or wean.  It is like having an old person around who knows everything without having to put up with the annoying habits that some old people can develop.  Champions are careful to not to become annoying old know-it-alls.  Even the Saturday Philosophy Club, which meets most days in the Club Room in the back of the Recreated Mercantile, has certain standards of behavior.  Compliance is optional, obviously.

          Soldiers do not have many options.  They go where they are told to go and do what they are told to do.  That they are willing to serve to protect and defend the population and the wonderful Constitution is a gift that Champions appreciate.  To those who have served and are home again, Champions say, “Welcome and thanks.”

          When Spring Break is over things will settle down again and life will resume its pleasant pace.  Harley and Barbara will come home for a little while.  The Young Farmer will have the roof on his new house.  Things will change and things will be very much the delightful same.  Wander down to the Square on the wild and wooly banks of Old Fox Creek to describe your golden days.  If you find that you cannot make the trip for reasons of practicality or facility, send those descriptions and pleasant recollections to Champion at getgoin.net or to Champion Items, RT 2 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  It will still be standing when the hoard of Spring Breakers depart.  The young people will return to their interesting lives in the outside world, with all their hi-tech toys and the big city noise, but they will remember their time in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—March 5, 2012

             Champions are Grateful for having been spared the worst of the bad weather and extend their sympathies and best wishes for a speedy recovery to those hard hit to the south and west, to the north and to the east.    A quote recently heard was, “Be kind to every one for you never know what great burden one might carry.”  Champions know this to be true.  Just looking at people even carefully does not always reveal what is going on with them.  One old Champion was nailing some used tin on a shed one day and busted her finger open with the hammer.  She began to laugh hilariously and said, “Finally, something really hurts that you can see!”  Apparently she had been in some emotional pain that she could not express.  Hardships and difficulties seen and unseen touch compassionate Champions.

          Someone asked Butch Linder why he was not up on the stage helping out with the music at the chili supper the other night.  He showed the index finger on his fretting hand to be fairly unbendable any more due to an accident with a wood splitter.   He just grinned at the suggestion that he turn the guitar around and play it the other way.  He could probably be ambidextrous if he wanted to, but he is too busy riding around with the Fox Trotters to practice.  There was plenty of good music at the chili supper anyway.  Big Creek started the evening off as the crowd settled in after a good meal.  They travel some considerable distance to support the Skyline VFD and are always a popular attraction.  The Back Yard Bluegrass took the middle slot of the evening entertainment.  Dennis tried to get the General to demonstrate the waltz, but he would not cooperate.  It would have been a good time to sing Happy Birthday to Mr. Shumate, though he worked to keep D.J. from revealing his age.  It was all over when father and son got into a speed picking contest.  If you were there you know who won.  Both Big Creek and Back Yard Bluegrass can be found on the internet on the Facebook sight.  It is easy to “like” them.  New to the chili supper scene but well received, were the Bluegrass Gospel Volunteers.  They sang some old favorites and as the evening wound down people left smiling from the experience. 

          Bob Berry, formerly of Gentryville and currently of the Twin Bridges area, purchased the winning ticket for the 2012 Skyline Chili Supper Quilt.  This was the first chili supper that he missed attending, but it is to be sure that he will have his beautiful quilt in short order.  He was also bidding in absentia on that coconut cream pie.  Sharon Woods beat him out on it this time and it went for a whopping $125.00!

A thank you note will go out to Professor Darrell Haden for allowing a copy of his famous controversial song, “All the Late News from the Courthouse,” to go into the auction.   He will be pleased to know that the winning bid on this item was made by a high ranking elected official of Douglas County —funny.    Well, there was a great deal of fun as well as plenty of good food and generosity shown by the community for its wonderful little Volunteer Fire Department.  Steve Moody makes a great master of ceremonies and keeps his sense of humor in order while he keeps everything organized.  It takes a lot of work to make this event happen and the community as a whole benefits from the chance to participate with their friends and neighbors to sustain the fire department.  It was said recently that everyone in the Skyline Fire District who has home-owner’s insurance can thank the fire department for making it possible.  All the volunteer fire fighters are trained first responders, so every car accident and home medical emergency situation has trained people nearby to help. 

          Someone called the 948-2339 number the other day to report a fire and they did not get an answer.  It has been noted that even though no one seems to be there the messages are heard in real time.  The 683-1020 number to the Sherriff’s Office is an ideal one to use to report a fire or an emergency.  The local fire departments are all hooked in to the system there.  It is a good idea for land owners to inform the fire department when they plan a controlled burn so that fire fighters are not called away from their jobs or their beds unnecessarily.   A few days of rain might allow for some burning but Champions are always careful.

          “Thunder in February means frost in May,” they say.  Linda’s Almanac from over at the Plant Place in Norwood shows the Full Moon will occur in the middle of the night Wednesday at 3:40 a.m. Thursday morning.  It is called the Worm Moon and Champions noting the number of robins in the neighborhood these days are sure that they are feeding well.  The moon change is the signal that root crops can go in from the 9^th through the 13^th of the month and then on the 17, 18^th and 21^st.  Flowers will do well to be planted between the 9^th to the 11^th, and transplanting will be good on the 12^th, 13^th, and 21^st.  The Almanac is available there in Norwood, at Henson’s Gas and Grocery in Downtown Champion and on line at www.championnews.us.  Linda is entering her busy time of the year and celebrating her birthday on the 5^th!  She was the high scorer at the regular Fortnight Bridge game on Saturday night.  Her sister, Charlene Dupree, hosted as substitute for the Champion player and Linda and the player from Veracruz bid two slams to win the eighth and final rubber.   They were both in hearts and Linda played them, making a grand slam on the second one.  Champion!

          Trucker Joe, hanging out around the stove in the Cultural Development Center (the CDC)  said that the biggest word that he knows is ‘flatulent’ or ‘flatuation.’  That word or any word that ends in the suffix ‘tion’ can be substituted for the word ‘fascination’ in the song by the same name.  It was a very popular song a few decades ago.  “It was fascination, I know, and it might have ended right then, at the start.  Just a passing glance, just a brief romance, and I might have gone on my way empty hearted.”  Try it with ‘ambition,’ ’ammunition,’ ’decomposition,’’ contrition,’ ’nutrition,’ ‘maceration’ or any such word.  Fun is free in Champion. 

          “Precarity” is another interesting word.  It is a condition of existence without predictability or security.   Champions are familiar with being in precarious situations and are reminded of the dangers of the hunting seasons, the deep low-water crossing, the Fox Creek Rodeo and the unlikeliness of falling out of the same boat twice on a float trip while trying to impress young nephews.    It is also applied appropriately to those serving in the US Military in the dangerous parts of the world, and, unfortunately, to many Veterans home already.  They are part of the “Precariat” and could use some Love and Gratitude. 

          Mention your favorite big word or new word  in a note to Champion at getgoin.net or over in the Champion CDC located in the Visitor Center in the Recreation of Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  A prominent local complains of “too many words” but seems to like being located at the bottom of several hills, on the wide and wooly banks of Old Fox Creek in Champion–Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—February 27, 2012 

           Champions find themselves in the delightful circumstance of seeing one of the world’s lovely places become even more lovely.  Not that there was anything unpleasant about the Temporary Annex to the Historic Emporium at its location over on the West side of the Square just where Lonnie Krider Memorial Drive takes steeply up the hill, and “Temporary” implies from the onset that it was designated to serve for a time only.  Time’s up!  During the past week the little building that served so well during the dissolution and recreation of the Historic Emporium was purchased and straight way moved to its new location over in Goat Flats.  The charming little structure will doubtlessly serve its new purpose well, and its absence on the Champion Square is sublime.   Ere long, with just a little weather and traffic, the Square will be restored to pre-construction condition and all will be right again.  The unimposing Loafing Shed has proven to be an attractive and agreeable solution to the issue of overflow loafers and so will remain.  Change can be good.  Champion!

          The Skyline VFD Chili Supper is a good chance to get together with old friends, family and neighbors who do not get together as often as some might like.  The musical line up looks great for the evening and the food is always good.  Lots of VFD Member pies will come in the door.   If all goes as planned, Esther will be bringing three coconut cream pies (one of her specialties), two for the kitchen and one for the Silent Auction!  It seems like the Sherriff and somebody got in a bidding war last summer over her coconut pies and big handfuls of money were donated to a good cause.  Bob Berry and Mary Goolsby have always been big supporters of the Skyline VFD and Bob has let go of several dollars over Esther’s pies in the past.  Friends look forward to some good visiting with them as they are not in the neighborhood nearly often enough.  They read the paper over there in Twin Bridges, so they know that they are loved and missed.  Someone read the Champion News, discovered that Esther had broken her favorite crock pot and set about to replace it.  That is a kind and generous expression of appreciation and if Esther only cooked for herself, a little bitty crock pot would be sufficient.  Still, she was much pleased at the thoughtfulness.

          Skyline third grader, Shaelyn Sarginson, will have her ninth birthday on Saturday, March 3^rd.   Hopefully she will be at the Chili Supper to have that song sung to her.  Nine is a very nice age!  Look for Tim Scrivner at the Chili Supper too.  He may have one of those nice bird feeders for the Silent Auction and he will have surely have some good information about the Skyline R-2 School Foundation and the wonderful connection with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.  Probably he could be lured into a conversation about the big Foundation Bass Fishing Tournament coming up in May.  Linda, over at the Plant Place in Norwood, will be celebrating her birthday on the 5^th of March.  There will be some nice bridge games in her future and she is quite busy getting vegetable plants ready for gardeners.  Her Almanac will be available March 1^st there at The Gift Corner and at Henson’s Gro. and Gas in Downtown Champion and on line at www.championnews.us.  Some have their peas in the ground already and are just waiting for a little rain and more sunshine.  Champions are glad to hear that Harley and Barbara are both feeling better and they will be home in Champion in a few weeks.  Let the fun continue!

          The other day a Champion noted that he had to keep the dictionary handy to read the Champion News.  If he has a copy of the New Urban Dictionary,  he will learn that in the ‘youth-speak’ parlance of London currently, the word ‘ridiculous’ has further nuances in the extrapolations: ‘rhinobuluous’, recaulkulous, and ‘redonkulous.’  An example of the latter:  “Cowboy Jack was rather redonkulous when he said, ‘I would not mislead (sic.) you, but I would haul you a load.’”

          Leap day is here again and many of the weddings of four years ago seem to have taken.  There is no indication that the Sadie Hawkins Tradition played any part in the engagements of people married after Leap day, 2008, and certainly success is to be celebrated no matter how it came to be.  Once in four years is often enough to have the tables turned on eligible young fellows.  Many famous athletes, artists and musicians were born on Leap Day as well as world leaders, scientists and entrepreneurs.   Champions wish them all well on their special day.  Peggy Hancock had her birthday on February 1^st.  She has not been well and her Champion friends send her their very best thoughts.  Peggy’s Father was Lloyd Hancock and he grew up in Champion and went to the Champion School.  She has a nice brother named Wes Hancock who is a well-known musician and plays with that Vanzant bunch when he gets to town.  Someone remarked the other day about the comparison between Elvis and the General.  It is not a contest; however, certain of the Staff-Sargent-General’s fan base are organizing a collection to acquire some rhinestones for his outfit.  Look for him at the Chili Supper to see if his side-burns are growing out.

          Not many songs come to mind when it comes to Leap Year.  Perhaps if it came around more often, it would be more popular.   There was a movie called “Leap Year” and one of the songs in it was “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” by the Mamas and the Papas.   Send any leap year songs that you can think of to Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367 Norwood, MO 65717 or to Champion at getgoin.net.  Now that the Champion Tourist Bureau and Information Center has its new location in the Community Action Meeting Room, feel free to drop in to share your knowledge or just to muse.  On your way to Champion, while you are still in your truck, think of a sweet, sad song to send to a soldier far away.  Sing it out loud—a song to let him know he has Love and Gratitude coming when he gets home.  Then compose yourself.  You will be in Champion! Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—February 20, 2012

           Champions routinely acknowledge wishes that come true.  When the exterior world reels with disannullery for any cause, the gratitude that Champions feel to see something good happen that they had hoped for is genuine and cause for celebration!

          Reasons for good cheer abound.  Harley and Barbara are feeling better.  If they were home in Champion these days, they would have had the chance to visit with their lovely niece, Linda Watts, who was in town with sons Dillon and Dakota for a few days.  They were visiting their Grandmother, uncles, aunts, and cousins down on the Fox Creek Farms.  These Tennessee Champions bring fun with them and much good energy to boot.  www.the-dairy-maid.com is a good place to check in on what is happening down on the farm.  Peanut’s mother has been posting her blog for a year now and it is lovely see how beautifully the high tech world blends with deep agrarian roots.  Check it out in Champion Connections at www.championnews.us. 

          Another reason to celebrate is that Skyline seventh grader Darin Olson will have his thirteenth birthday on the 23^rd of February.  Sources say he is a good student, a good athlete and a nice guy.  This is his first year at Skyline and he played football for Ava this year.  His sister, Amelia, is in the third grade at Skyline.  Her teacher, Mrs. Cline, is celebrating her birthday that day too.  Mrs. Cline is still in her twenties!  Her friends, co-workers, students, family and neighbors all join in to sing that song that rejoices in her youth, her beauty, and her gentility.  Her in-laws prefer her to their own son, who makes random remarks about his parents’ standards and other oddities.  She has only good things to say about him.  She is, after all, genteel.

           It is nice to see Mrs. McCallie celebrating her 94^th birthday still, or getting an early start on her 95^th.  Esther Wrinkles is from June 28^th until August 11^th older than Ethel.  At that age it is hardly a difference.  Esther said that she really enjoyed Ethel’s letter and has been meaning to give her a call.  Between them they have almost two hundred years of life experience that even youthful sexagenarians and septuagenarians can call on for examples of graceful ageing.  Day by day, every dawning day is one to celebrate. 

          A pleasant chat with the General’s wife (bless her heart!) reveals that there were 85 in attendance at the Thursday Night Jam over at the Vanzant Community Center.  She says that there were twelve musicians who got up to play and a number of others who just enjoyed the show.  The Thursday Night Jam is a wonderful reaction by the community to the loss of the two local places that people had to enjoy music (not to mention get some gas or milk or bread or have a nice bite to eat).   People here can go to other sources for most of their necessities, but they need the music and will find a way to have it.  Champion!  The General is a big cog (some say ‘clog’) in that wheel of music that goes round and round.  He drags that guitar case around for show, but rarely plays the thing.  “Humble” may not be the worst thing anybody has ever called him, but it is a compliment to the level of musicianship when one recognizes that there are other players around who are better.  Even Elvis asked for Jerry Reed to play the introduction to “Guitar Man” when he covered Reed’s song.  Jerry had a unique fingerpicking style and tuned his guitar, according to him, “up all weird kind of ways.”  Now it would seem that the General is being compared to Elvis!  It is astonishing.

          The military says that a soldier from Russellville, Arkansas has been killed in Afghanistan.  The Department of Defense announced Saturday that 30-year-old Sargent Jerry D. Reed II died February 16^th in Paktika Province there.  It is not known if the Sargent was related to the musician, but it is sure that his family is suffering the terrible loss.  The U.S. Military will be present in the dangerous parts of the world for the foreseeable future.   Champions appreciate their Veterans and extend Love and Gratitude to them and to those currently out there on behalf of the whole Nation. 

          The 23^rd will also be the first of several good days to be planting crops that bare their yield above the ground.  Peas!  Snowpeas, shelling peas, English peas–whatever kind a person likes, it is a good time to get them in the ground.  Linda’s Almanac from over at the Plant Place in Norwood will have all the information that gardeners need when she opens up for business on March 1^st.  Her Cole crops are doing well, she says.  Meanwhile, mailboxes are fairly choked with seed catalogues and warm days beckon Champions out to get their hands dirty.  Stop in at Henson’s Store over on the North Side of the Square in downtown Champion to pick up some of those nice little jersey gloves to keep your gardening hands clean.  The other day an old Champion stopped in to get some gas so he could make it to town to buy a flush valve.  There hanging on the pegboard behind the counter were two different types of flush valves, and the old guy made his choice, went on home and had time to do a little therapeutic wood stacking after his plumbing chores were over.  Champions continue to be amazed at the inventory of the Historic Emporium and some housewives are pleased that there is such a convivial place for their spouses to dawdle without making the long trip to the big towns.  Champion is town enough for country people. 

          Skyline School Board member, Tim Scrivner, was pictured the other day donating blood at one of the FFA’s six annual blood drives.  That Tim is a real Veracruzer and his hand is in several nice pies.  He has been instrumental with the Skyline R-2 School Foundation in getting the Foundation hooked up with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.  This is an excellent reading program available to all preschool children in the school district.  It is a 60 volume set of books beginning with the children’s classic The Little Engine That Could™.  Each month a new, carefully selected book is mailed to the child’s home.  It is free and the best gift for beginning a happy lifetime of reading.  (Find a Registration form at Henson’s Store in Champion or at the School.)  He has also connected with a Skyline parent to arrange a Bass Fishing Tournament on May 26^th at the Spring Creek Boat Ramp, Isabella, MO.  There will be much said about this in the future.  Right now the Auxiliary of the Skyline VFD is hoping that Fire District Member Scrivner will come up with another of his wonderful bird feeders for the Silent Auction at the chili supper on March 3^rd. 

          One Social Season blends happily into the next and as Mr. Reed sang, “When you’re hot, you’re hot!” Get the hot scoop around the stove in the Champion Social Network Salon and Planning Center in the anteroom (if you use the Executive Entry) of The Historic Mercantile located on the broad pleasant banks of Fox Creek, at the bottom of several hills, the juncture of a number of roads, one of which is paved.  Add your events to the calendar at Champion Items, Rt. 2 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or at Champion at getgoin.net.  It is always best to come in person, to Champion!  Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—February 13, 2012

          Champions notice that they like people who look like themselves.  They really like people who speak the way that do–or “talk like them,” to illustrate.  They often marry people who look like they look.  Just study the newspaper to see how often the betrothed or just married pair seems to share the same smile.   That is the way it is with Harley and Barbara.  They both have radiant smiles with twinkly eyes and a quick and sharp sense of humor.  It may be that it is true that people who live together for a long time begin to look alike.  That is not the case with them, however, as stature and fashion sense affirms the differences as indeed being from Venus and Mars.  While they do not look very much alike (stature and fashion), one does not look at either of them without being reminded in some pleasant way of the other.  When cupid loosed his bow on them all those many years ago, it took.  Currently both are somewhat under the weather.  Their Champion friends, family, and neighbors all yearn to know that they are feeling better and actively extend good wishes to effect that happy end.   Sweethearts are Champions!    

          Weeks now after it was over, the Superbowl football game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots still figures frequently in conversations around the stove.  They say that for the next fifty years they will be talking about that Manning to Manningham play.  Meanwhile, in Auckland, they are talking about a fan who ran out on the field in his underwear during a rugby game between New Zealand and Samoa and gave a flying tackle to the Samoan player with the ball.  After the fracas was over, New Zealand won that game, but on February 12^th, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Samoa won the final game for the World Rugby Championship.  There will probably be parades in Samoa this week.   American football and rugby share their origins and have some basic similarities.  The games are played on similar fields, with the similar goal of advancing the similarly shaped ball to the designated end zone to score points.   There are generally eleven players on the field for each team in American football, and thirteen per team in rugby.  One of the major differences in the two sports is that in rugby, only the player who has the ball can be interfered with by the opposing team , tackled or blocked or held, and any member of the team can advance the ball.  While this would seem to make the game less brutal, with no offensive blocking, etc., it turns out that the game is still quite fierce.  There are no real time-outs in rugby and the players do not wear padding or any kind of protective gear to speak of.  They just play in t-shirts and gym shorts and shoes.  One Champion notes that the rugby players wear fewer clothes but are much more modest than the American football players in all that specialized spandex that makes her kind of blush in spite of the fact that the game is sanctioned as wholesome activity everywhere in the nation.  Rugby players do not wear helmets so their faces are more visible and it somehow makes the game more personal.  The games are a little different, but in Champion and Samoa sports fans live vicariously through their favorite players or teams and cheer them on.  Samoa is located in the South Pacific Ocean.  Pretty much, if a person were in downtown Champion and wanted to point to Samoa, they would just point at Oklahoma City and curve that pointing finger just a little to accommodate the roundness of the Earth and keep pointing for about seven thousand miles in a straight line.   So congratulations Samoa!  Enjoy your parade.  You are Champions!

          An e-mail to the Champion at getgoin.net mailbox the other day commented on the old Champion’s remarks that things are somehow ‘off’ when victorious gladiators (New York Giants football team) are lavished with a parade and hailed as heroes when the heroic warriors (Veterans of the Nation’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) are ignored and marginalized otherwise with inattention.  “Warriors are not what you think of as warriors.  The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life.  The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others.  His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who cannot provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity.” Sitting Bull said that.  Love and Gratitude is due those who sacrifice for all.  Veterans are Champions.

          Champion gardeners are as happy as school children to see the snow in its nitrogen fixing blanket out over the garden beds.  An ample larder of squash, sweet potatoes, and all kinds of home canned garden produce, plus the venison in the freezer and the peas, peaches and peppers makes lucky pensioners happy to be able to stay at home.  “Let it snow!  Let it snow!  Let it snow!“  Valentine’s Day is always a romantic time in Champion.  It will also be a good time to do a little indoor transplanting or sewing of seedbeds.  Linda’s Almanac will be available soon to help gardeners figure out what to do and when.   Sweethearts already know.

          The Champion Community Action Meeting Room at Henson’s Grocery and Gas on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion got some good use on Wednesday.  The Skyline VFD Auxiliary met to continue with the good planning that makes the annual Chili Supper a great fund raiser every time.   There will be good food, good music, fellowship, pie, a silent auction, a quilt drawing and the chance to get out of that old wintertime rut and into some big time fun.  All the proceeds go to help the wonderful Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department with its expenses.  Any homeowner in the fire district who has home owner’s insurance knows that that protection is available only because this wonderful little fire department is on the job.  March the third will be a marvelous time to get out and hob nob with the neighbors.  Champion!

          “Eating tomatoes and sauerkraut is a good way to lose weight.”  “Vinegar is good for ticks.”  “Skunk grease is good for the croop.”  These are things that can be heard in Champion.  Must the tomatoes and sauerkraut be eaten together?  Does the vinegar make the ticks healthy, or make them less interested in people?  How does one acquire skunk grease?  Answer any of these questions or ask any others at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or at Champion at getgoin.net.  See what other items of interest might spark a Champion intellect.   Look at www.championnews.us for inspiration.  For true inspiration, stride swiftly up the broad elegant stairway of the Recreation of the Historic Emporium and at the summit, turn quickly to take in the view—it is breathtaking in its pastoral tranquility.  Champion!  Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—February 6, 2012

          Champions were wakened with bright moonlight in their faces and the promise of a sunny day ahead.  The clear sky made for a cold morning, but Champions know that it is winter and do not complain.  Seed catalogues make good reading.

                A sharp knock on Esther Wrinkles’ door the other day brought her face to face with Jim Dewitt.  He has been delivering her propane since 1989.  In all that time they had not yet met.  In no time they became acquainted and before the propane company could even think that Jim might be dawdling, he and Esther had made an agreement that gave him two of her queen sized quilts (a pair of her beautiful strip quilts with matching linings) and Esther had a handful of money.  Cool.  If that were not enough, about an hour later the door banged again and it was Jim again and he wanted two more quilts.  Esther agreed and the deal was struck.  Meanwhile, way over on the other side of town Donna Dewitt received a phone call.  “When I come home you better hide under the table.”  Donna is not unfamiliar with this kind of communication from her husband, but when he called the second time with the same message, she took it to heart.  At the end of his work day Jim came home bounding through the door, arms overflowing with quilts, “Hello!  Hello!” he shouted.  No answer.  “Hello!” again to a quiet house.  He had time to arrange the quilts on the sofa before Donna came out from under the table.  “What were you doing under there?”  Well, he knew.  They tease each other affectionately all the time.  Jim was looking for a way to make Donna feel better.  “I want to make my wife happy,” is what he told Esther to get her to sell the quilts to him to begin with.  It worked.  Donna said that she knew that Esther called them ‘strip’ quilts, but one of them particularly was worked in such colors that she thought it looked like “Stair Steps to Heaven.”  It made Donna think about her daughter, Donna Lee Pierce, who recently passed away at the young age of 48.  She was a bubbly and bright person.  She battled health problems with an optimistic point of view.  She always cared about helping other people and she touched many lives in a positive way.  So Esther’s bright quilt brought a smile to several people and new friendships were forged just because Jim decided finally to pound on Esther’s Door.  She made some money—not nearly enough for her efforts, but she will say it all counts, and Jim made big time points with his sweetheart.  Donna says that she and Jim like to explore the countryside and she expects that one sunny day soon they will take a Saturday trip down to Champion to tour the square.  They can enjoy refreshments at the Hospitality Center of the Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side.  She is looking forward to seeing Esther’s Skyline VFD quilt on display there and plans to buy some tickets.  She may wind up with five of Esther’s’ quilts!  Champion!

          Everyone loves his own birthday, well, almost everyone, Mrs. Dupree.  It is a pretty sure bet that Alex and Aaron Underwood love their birthday.  They are eighth graders at Skyline and will be fourteen on the 7^th.  They share their birthday with Cowboy Jack who is so old that he went to the New Dogwood School.   Keith Braden is a sixth grader at Skyline and he will be twelve years old on the 9^th.  Kayla Volner will be fourteen that day.  She is in the eight grade.  Cheyenne Baker is in the second grade there and she will be eight years old on the 11^th.  These kids may all live to be one hundred, but these days that is a fairly rare occurrence.  Mrs. Edith Turner Graham has made it.  She celebrated with friends and family on Saturday, the 28^th of January, but her actual birthday was February 2^nd.  She admitted needing some help to blow all the candles out. There were about thirty of her family, friends, and neighbors there to help.  Edith said that she never gave any thought to living to be a hundred years old.  She just kept on living.  She said that she has probably had such good fortune in her life because she started out early going to Sunday school.  Her six older brothers went to the swimming hole on Sundays, but she went to Sunday school.  She is a native of the Squires community and lived right in that area her whole life until about three years ago when she moved in with her daughter, Eula Lakey, over in Veracruz.  She says that these days she mostly stays inside, but when the weather warms up she will be back out.  She had always had a big garden.  Her last year at home she canned a hundred quarts of peaches.  She picked out sixty pounds of walnut kernels that year.   Growing up in the country and raising her four children there, Edith knew how to keep busy.  She said that she remembered the first time she went to town. She was four or five years old and she rode horseback with her mother into Ava.  It was not much of a town, just a few houses and store buildings.  She went to school at Pleasant Hill and she remembers her Uncle Bank Wheeler making a Flying Ginny.   Kids knew how to have a good time back then.   Everyone who has lived so long has seen hard times and tragedy and it takes strength of character to keep a good perspective.  Edith says that at this age a person’s mind seems to come and go.  She seems to be holding on to her good thinking processes better than many much, much younger than herself.  She enjoys reading and keeping up with the news and visiting with family and friends.  A Champion visiting with her the other day asked if there was anything that she regretted doing or not doing in her hundred years.  Her reply was, “What would be the use of that?”  That is a sign of someone living in the present, though when asked about her favorite times she smiles and says how much she enjoyed riding her horse to church when she was a girl.  She went to Murray most of her life, but sometimes over to Wasola or other churches around.  Her oldest brother gave her that horse and saddle and it was a good time in her life. 

          A big ticker tape parade in New York City will celebrate the super bowl football winners and the good time in their lives.  A couple of guys in St. Louis recently organized a parade for Veterans of the current and recent conflicts in the Middle East.  It did some good.  Champions hope that more of those serving the Nation in the dangerous parts of the world will get some of that good feeling of recognition that privileged athletes enjoy.  The athletes work hard and are paid well for it.  Military personnel work hard and risk their lives for not much money and frequently not much in the way of support once they make it home.  They do not do what they do for the recognition, but it would still be a nice idea.  One old Champion thinks that National priorities seem eschewed when victorious gladiators are hailed and heroic warriors are ignored.

          Share some of the good times in your life at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367 Norwood, MO 65717 or at Champion at getgoin.net. Randy Newman sings, “We may only go ‘round once as far as I can tell.  It’s the time of your life, so live it well.”    Enjoy Champion good times at www.championnews.us or in person from the vantage point of the big front porch at Henson’s Store on the North Side of the Square in Historic Downtown Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—January 30, 2012

          Champions hold fast to their confidence and exhort each other today while it is still called “Today.”

          The week end in Champion was much improved by a visit from Raymond and Esther Howard. Raymond grew up down in Ozark County on the farm his grandfather homesteaded there.  After he finished school, he took off to Iowa where he shucked some corn and eventually came to rest somewhere around Hannibal.  There, out on Broadway Street, he met a cool North breeze and they made a team.  It sounds like it was a blind date at a bowling alley and pins have been falling ever since.  Esther has a great laugh and a youthful outlook.  She said that children and grandchildren grow up.  That is what they are supposed to do and you just have to let them go and love them wherever they go.  This was in response to a Champion grandmother lonesome for her grandchildren.  Esther remembers stories her Grandmother told her about living up in North Dakota.  She said that she did not need clothespins because the laundry would just freeze to the line.  She told a story about her grandfather traveling home from the store with a beef and half a hog when he had trouble with his horse.  He was set on by wolves and wound up feeding the whole half of hog, a piece at a time, to the pack of wolves before he made it home.   Practically every Champion can remember a story that a grandparent told.  What a treasure!  Champions are exhorted to share these gifts, perhaps around the stove at Henson’s Store over on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  Raymond and Esther live up at Marshfield.  They stay busy in their own neighborhood, but every once in a while they make it to Champion.  It cannot be too often.

          For numerology enthusiasts a birthday on 02-01-2012 seems like fun.  Linda’s husband is kind of an enigmatic character and it is hard to tell if he has fun.  He mostly expresses himself in monosyllables. Now, Zack Alexander enjoys that birthday too and it is a sure bet he has more to say.  He has parents and grandparents who flat know how to celebrate.  February second (02-02-2012) also has some excitement about it.  It is the day old Punxsutawney Phil  comes out to sing happy birthday to Judith Sharon Parsons, Angie Heffern (Zack’s Aunt Angie), Charlene Dupree, a  fifth grade girl named Jasmine,  and Boris Yeltsin who will be 80 this year and Clark Gable who would have been 110 years old.  Phil also is known for making weather predictions, but these days the weather is so unusual that Champions will not hold him to any hard and fast prophesies.  Skyline School eighth grader, Zachariah Baker, will be 13 on the 3^rd of February and since that is a Friday this year, the whole school will be jumping with excitement.  People who know him say he is a nice kid, a good student and maybe a little mischievous.  That is exactly what is expected of a young man his age.   Champion!

          A conversation between Craig Schneider and Tom Appelbaum resulted in a welcome home parade for Iraq War Veterans in St. Louis on Saturday.  Reports are that there were tens and tens of thousands of people there waving flags and cheering as about six hundred Veterans walked along the down town streets.   They said that war hardened Veterans were brought to tears at the outpouring of Love and Gratitude.  Champion!

          There was a lovely article in some of the local papers about Esther Wrinkles recently and Esther said that it was factually accurate for the most part.  The inaccuracies were primarily about the quilt, the photo of which accompanied the article.  Esther hand pieced it and the workmanship is up to her excellent standards.  She wanted people to know that it is machine quilted and will stand up to years of use and will still be a keepsake heirloom for the lucky winner.  It has a burgundy colored lining and is executed in burgundy, rose, blue and white.  It is on display at Henson’s Grocery and Gas on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  Tickets are available there and from any Auxiliary member.  The drawing will be held at the Chili Supper, March 3rd at the Skyline School.    All proceeds from the quilt will go to benefit the Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department for which Esther has been a Champion from its very beginning.  She is beginning to feel a little better over her bronchitis.  That is good news. She says she will have to hold off on going for the Thursday pot-luck music at the Vanzant Community Center.  She says it looks like they are getting a good crowd every time and she is anxious to go again.  Champions say, “You go, Girl!”

          Gardeners are not looking at the calendar so much as they are at the weather and the condition of the garden.  Some are anxious to get started in spite of the admonition that it might be early.  Linda’s Almanac will soon be available to assist gardeners.  Lem and Ned are much in demand these days for their good company and their zealous affection for garden work.  The winter has spared many a fine turnip so these brutes will be well fed of their favorite victual as they dig and fork and shovel what needs it.  They will soon be returning from their internship at the Good Intentions Paving Stone (GIPS) research facility and factory where they have been testing the efficacy of the biodegradable paving stone made primarily from vegetable matter like turnip greens and pig weed.  This is the outfit that has been responsible for the paving of many well know and much used roads all over the world.  The Champion adventurers will have some stories to tell.  Will they sing that song, “Why did they leave the plow in the field and look for a job in the town?”  Lem and Ned will best be remembered for their succinct definition of the financial concept of ‘derivatives. ’    Read their complete take on the subject in the articles of November 16^th and November 23, 2009, at www.championnews.us.   It will be most interesting to learn what they have to say about the Occupy Movement.   Come home, dear boys!  It is Royce and Jo Henson who ought to be coming home.   You have been away too long.   A beautiful spring day, even if it takes place in the winter time, would be a fine time to see that little yellow sports car come sashaying through the square.  Perhaps Royce would guest speak at the Saturday Philosopher’s Club gathering.  What a Champion notion! 

          At a local Thrift Store for twenty five cents, a Champion picked up a pristine copy of the Complete Poetry and Selected Prose by Walt Whitman.   Her Champion spouse said that he always thought of Whitman as being kind of a cheerleader and overly sentimental.  Even if that were true, and she does not at all agree that it is, she thinks, “What’s wrong with that?”  Express your opinion at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or at Champion at getgoin.net. Better yet, express it in person.  Come on down to the nice flat place at the bottom of several hills, at the end of the pavement, at the conjunction of several roads, on the wide an luxurious banks of Old Fox Creek to Champion!  Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—January 23, 2012

          Sunday found Champions responding to the slowness of the arrival of the weather front that was promised and described as a warming trend.  Stillness marked the damp winter day when the earlier greens turned to gold on the ground and gray as the fog took the tops of the hills away and left sycamores reaching white down from sky to ground and from ground to sky. This is a visually stimulating time of the year in Champion.  Then Monday morning dawned bright and clear, not too cold, and everything again took on that optimistic gleam.  It is Champion. 

          Someone asked about that poem that celebrates the goodbyes.  It was written by Bernice Morgan of Marshfield and dedicated to the Krider family.  Read the whole thing in the archives at www.championnews.us.  Find it in the January 25^th post of 2009.  The January 25^th posting for 2010, includes good news from the Brixie clan that Jacob Kyle Brixie was born Monday evening, January 18^th, 2010 at 6:01 to Jana and James Brixie.   His older sister Jenna Kateland is now four and a half years old and it has indeed turned out that there has been enough love and fun to go around.  (There was speculation way back then that this would most likely be the case.)  There was a party for Jacob on Saturday the 21^st and most of the same rowdy crowd showed up for that shindig that will be hanging around when the ‘old man’ celebrates his 40^th on the 30^th!  “May your horse never stumble.  May your cinch never break. May your belly never grumble and your heart never ache!”  This is a birthday wish for persons who do not too much like the limelight, but like cowboy birthday sentiments.  It is also a wish for young Billy Collins who will celebrate his 13^th birthday on the 24^th.  He is a seventh grader at Skyline School.  He enjoys all kinds of sports, especially basketball and soccer and he is learning to play the piano.  Miss Brooke Johnson will be six on the 26^th.  She likes to sing and had a solo at the Skyline School Christmas program where she attends kindergarten with her cousin Rowdy.  Old Champions remember their own sweet school days and cast their thoughts to these young ones now sometimes with envy of their youth and sometimes with gratitude for not to have to go through it all again.  It is encouraging to see how many Old Champions are stepping up to support this little school that is the closest thing to their own country school experience that will ever be again.  The Skyline R2 School Foundation is beginning to see some good donations come in.  As years go by, the school stands to benefit significantly in its literacy and technology programs due to the generosity of nostalgic alumni of little rural schools.  Zack Alexander’s mother attended Skyline.  She will have her birthday on the 27^th.  She is somewhere well past 40 now and not suffering any loss of joie de vivre.   Perhaps this is because she has such a handsome husband and an exceptionally good looking and smart child, or because her Champion upbringing gave her the confidence to express her own intelligence, the matriarchal inheritance of prodigal sarcasm notwithstanding.  Champions applaud all celebrants no matter the cause!   

          Champions are applauding their returning Veterans and extending to them Love and Gratitude.

          Champions in Edinburgh, Scotland are seeing sunset at about half past four in the afternoon these days.  It is coming up a couple of minutes earlier there, as well as here, every day and so before long the days will be significantly longer and then shorter again, etc., ad inf.   This Champion is in a good position to be able to see the Northern Lights that are said to be being spectacular these nights.  Of course, Edinburgh is a huge city with lots of light pollution, so he might have to go up to the Highlands on a clear night to get a real view.  It has been reported that the solar storm that causes the visual penomenum of the arora borialis  is of such magnitude that the effect should be easily visible from Champion latitudes.  That would require a clear night here.  It could happen.  People who watch these occurences for a living say that the storm is huge but that it will pass North of the Earth and that Earth is in no danger.  They do say that there could be some minor interferrence with satellites and perhaps some power glitches as the magnetic field of the planet is disturbed.   The Chinese New Year is being celebrated this week.  The Year of the Dragon is portentous of very good luck, they say.  Champions are ready.  There are various predictions for gloom and destruction this year as per the Mayan calendar and certain miscalculating evangelical prognosticators, but Champions stay focused on the Bright Side.  

          Esther’s plant is a beautiful Sego Palm.  No one has taken credit for the gift, so it is still a mystery plant.  It adds a nice tropical feel to Esther’s house and she has very much been enjoying it, but she would still like to know who shared the lovely thing with her.  She has been fighting off some bronchitis and so has been staying close to home.  Better weather will see her out and about again and Champions will be glad.  Maybe she will be in fine enough fettle to enjoy the Thursday pot luck jam session over at the Vanzant Community Center.  One old Champion girl has so many cardinals in her lilac bush that she is trying to think of all the songs that talk about red birds.  She can think of several songs about lilac bushes. No doubt some of those many musicians can come up with some for her.  Thursday is the day for the Old Biddies to get together at the Mansfield Community Center for their monthly bridge game.  Thursdays are busy days.  Champion! 

          The Saturday Philosophy Club had its regular meeting in the Club Room at Hensons’s Grocery and Gas, which is better known to some as the Recreation of the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  The round table fills up first since the idea is that no one can be cornered into saying something that he might regret or, in certain cases, telling the truth.  It is a lively group and membership seems to be limited only to those present.  Describe your philosophy or send your red bird songs to Champion at getgoin.net or to Champion Items at Rt. 2, Box 367 Norwood, MO 65717.  Come down to the broad and wooly banks of Old Fox Creek for the kind of sightseeing that allows for the development of a tranquil, benevolent, lighthearted, compassionate, and appreciative philosophy. Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—January 16, 2012

           There is no denying that Champion is a rural community.  It is thriving, bustling, full of energy and purpose and “ready to every good work.”  It is also quite green even with the deciduous trees bare and the flower beds fallow.  Pastures take on the appearance of an antique velvet coverlet that may have been a tapestry of gold and emerald at one time now softened, muted and speckled with brown spots here and there.  The wintertime pastoral scene has an underlayment of solid good earth that speaks of a sound past, a pleasant present, and a bright future—Champion!

           A Champion writes, “Dear Aunt Nellie,  Our flimsey little family grapevine has finally let me know that you are yet living and that you are vigorous and productive.  I pray this is true and that you are enjoying beautiful days.  As my generation of the family ages we often think of the many we have lost.  It is a wonderful thing when we realize at last that we have not really lost our dear ones because what they have given to us is still with us.  One time I told Uncle Doc that one of my best childhood memories was lying on a pallet in the front room of Grandmother and Granddaddy’s house listening to him and my folks out on the porch talking into the night.  There were no lights on in the house and their voices and low laughter were soft but clear over the creak of the rockers.  I held my breath to hear every word and drifted off to deep sleep.  He said that when he was with the kids on the pallet, it was your voice and Aunt Eavvie’s that he listened for and I suddenly had an understanding of the continuity of family.  You are the last one of your generation on both sides of my family.  I just wanted to let you know that the gifts you have shared are still being appreciated.”  Champion!  The cold of January brings to mind the passing of  a dear Champion friend and the many good memories and lesson he left.  As the Proctor and Newberry families say good-bye to their precious one, the poem written for Lonnie Krider by Bernice Morgan comes to mind.   A line from  “My Good-bye”  goes, “So share my joy, I’m going home.  I’ve been away too long.  If you want to please me now, then sing a joyful song.”  Sometimes joy is a while in the coming as loss is such a weight.  Champions know they must wait.  Champions would comfort their dear friends.

          Reports are that Wilburn had a good birthday on the 10^th.  He did not know that he shared it with young Justin Willhite who became twelve years old on that date.  They are neighbors and one can easily enough see the similarities between the two.  They are both good with animals, both a little stubborn and both know how to have fun.  Justin might like to know that when Wilburn was about his age, he and a friend got caught eating the divinity candy that was being stored in a lady’s spring house.  He had to carry one hundred buckets of water for the lady as a punishment.  Wilburn did not say from where to where he carried those buckets of water or if his friend had to do the same, but it still sounds like quite a chore and doubtlessly a good lesson for modern day boys who probably can figure out modern day ways to get in trouble.   Champions both!

          Kyle Barker will be five years old on the 21^st of January!  He is a lucky lad with a beautiful home place and a rich framiy heritage.  He has very good looking, smart parents and a little brother named Caleb.  Most likely he is spoiled to homemade ice cream.  He has a grandfather with a huge collection of ice cream freezers and the idea that his peanutbutter icecream is prizeworthy.   Kyle and Caleb probably know all about that, but the rest of the community seems to have only the General’s braggadocio for proof.   They say it (the proof) is in the pudding (or the icecream) but it takes a timely invitation to win the prize. 

          Other birthdays—milestones to be sure—have been celebrated discreetly.  A person does not like too much the limelight.  Champions with gardening on their mind can think about starting broccoli plants on the 25^th through the 27^th.  Linda from over at the Plant Place in Norwood says they need about eight weeks to be ready  from seed to the garden.  The seed packets say to harden the plants off when they are six to eight inches tall and plant out in the garden after the danger of frost has passed.  That is early May in Champion!  Everyone will have to make his own decision about when to plant and what.  Certainly when the time is right Linda will have plenty of broccoli and cabbage and all thoses other wonderful plants for Champion gardens.  Meanwhile,  some will be glad for rain and snow on all that manure spread in the garden already.

          Linda got herself in quite a situation at the Fortnight bridge game the other night.  In concert with the Champion player,  she outscored, by 190 points, oponents from Vera Cruz and Brushy Knob who were the winners of the rubber.   It took sixteen hands to play the two games (two games is a rubber) and the hour ran late.   Keen defensive play can be every bit  as exhilirating as playing the hand.  She won the quarters which, in this instance, was the low money and the host won the nickles with the high score overall.  Perhaps some real winter weather will find more friends together playing cards.  Several will be willing to drop minor responisbilites, that is responsiblitlies of minor import, at the drop of a hat for a good bridge game or “pitch” as played by Champion rules over in the game room at the Recreation of the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in downtown Champion.   A few members of the Skyline VFD Auxiliary gathered in the conference room there on Saturday afternoon to make some prelimnary plans for the annual chili supper which will be held at the Skyline School on March 3^rd this year.  If the weather turns too bad to travel, the affair will be postponed until the following Saturday, which will be March 10.  Tickets were distributed among the members  for chances on this year’s quilt.  It is a queensize beauty, hand pieced by Esther Wrinkles and machine quilted.   This will be one of those future family heirlooms.  All the proceeds from the quilt go to benefit the fire department to help with the expenses of keeping the community safe.   Some good photos were taken of the quilt and it will be on view at Henson’s Store for inspection until the evening of the drawing, March 3^rd. 

            January’s is called the Wolf Moon and the month itself is called ‘the door to the year.’  Champions filng it open wide with welcome for whatever may come.  Love and Gratitude for the beauty of the place, for family and friends and for those dear ones passed are the prevalent expressions.  The Eighth of January is a particualrly cheerful January song and that is the way it is all through the month in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION-January 9, 2012

           The first week of the New Year found Champions out enjoying the good weather.  No complaints were registered; though there is an undercurrent of concern about when and if winter will really arrive.  Most Champions are pretty sure that there will really be some serious winter at some point.  One said that it looks like February will be colder than average and that March will be very warm and then very cold. One has a collection of old farmer’s almanacs going back for years and the lesson he has to share is that the seasons go around and round and the road goes on and on and even if the destination is Champion, ‘the journey is the thing.’  

           It is a fortunate child who has both sets of grandparents living close by.  Inevitably one grandparent becomes the favorite.  “I want my real grandmother!” shouts one such fortunate child as the less preferred grandparent attempts an awkward closeness or fumbles in some other way.  When the outburst is reported, as it surely will be, it is up to the ‘real’ grandmother to squelch that secret smile and exhibit the generosity of spirit that will forever be an example to the child.  Life gets complicated even in its sweetest moments. 

           Champions are zealous for good works.  People move to Champion just to have good neighbors.  A good neighbor will share his plenty.  One has plenty of that good fertilizer that is produced by running grain and hay through a nice thoroughbred horse.  Arrangements being made for this commodity right in the presence of others did not bring out the information that ‘some’ of them seemed to have had about this very substance from this very source having been toxic to several tomato patches in previous years.  It is spread out on the garden now and now the chit chat around the stove harkens back to those ruined gardens and the blame having been cast on the generous horseman.  So now time will tell if the ‘good stuff’ will have been a gift indeed or an expensive folly.  Thanks for the heads up, neighbors.  Thanks for the manure, neighbors.  There is a certain element of fun in watching people make mistakes, of course.  Faith in the value of organic fertilizer and a sense of humor will go along with hopes for some rain, snow and good winter weather to season the application of natural wonder between now and planting.  Champions are patient.  Seed catalogues are choking mail boxes thanks to Champion mail carrier, Ms. Ross, and before long Champions will be busy getting some of their seeds started.  Linda will probably have Cole crops up and going by the time The Plant Place and Gift Corner opens up again on the first of February.  Champions know she is there working.  Hopefully she is getting some good bridge time in too.  Playing a good hand of cards occasionally is very relaxing.  That is to say that for the moments of the play every other care is suspended. 

           A forty year resident of Champion South must be exhaling slowly as a way to reduce his aggravation at seeing the photo of a local standing beside a family heirloom tree of gigantic proportions.  The tree is indeed a marvel.  The fellow under it is the same guy who hand-shook a promise at a land deal that turned out badly.  Oh, it did not turn out badly for him.  Count on that. The lesson learned by the Champion is to be careful with whom he shakes hands over something important.  Predatory logging is an industry in itself in these parts.  A neighbor down Fourteen Highway near the Chapel Grove reports her vacant house having been stripped of its copper wiring and all the windows having been broken out.  Vigilance to neighborhood conditions is not the same thing as being nosey.  “Neighborhood Watches” are no longer just a city thing.  There was a time not so long ago when no one had a lock on the door.  Some houses were sold that had never had a lock on them or had not had a key in generations.  Times have changed.  There have always been scoundrels, but now there is danger and Champions are alert to their own safety and that of their neighbors.  People traveling C Highway need to be alert to loose horses.  There are seven of them that can be found between Evans and WW at any time.  People going to the basketball game at Skyline the other night had close calls with those horses.  They have been reported to authorities several times but as yet no action has been taken to contain them.  Be cautious, Champions.  Send solutions to local problems to Champion Items, Rt. 2 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or to Champion at getgoin.net.  Wander around the website at www.championnews.us to see what a charming community looks like. 

           “I was looking back to see if you were looking back to see if I was looking back to see if you were looking back at me.  You were cute as you could be standing looking back at me and it was plain to see that I’d enjoy your company.”  Elmer Banks said there were seventeen pickers at the Thursday Night music over at Vanzant.  It is turning out to be quite a lovely happening with musicians coming from all around the area.  This Thursday the Skyline VFD Auxiliary will have its meeting at 7 p.m. at Henson’s Store in Downtown Champion.  They will get right down to business so there will still be time to make the jam session over at Vanzant.  They will be planning the annual chili supper that benefits the Skyline Fire Department.  Volunteers are looking out after their communities—fire fighters, first responders and soldiers all put aside their own safety and convenience to serve their communities and their Nation.  Champions express their Love and Gratitude to those who serve in a variety of ways.  Any member of the fire district is welcome to come participate in the Skyline VFD Auxiliary.

           Esther Wrinkles said that she would enjoy the beautiful Mystery Plant that someone left on her porch for her more if she knew who it had left it.  She says it is in a green pan and is about two feet tall.  There are some pretty rocks on top of the soil.  Yvonne Unger brought it in the house for her when she came over with some soup and some lemon bars.  Esther is fighting off a little cold and working to bounce back after having broken her favorite little crock pot in a spill. 

           Wilburn Hutchison shares his birthday with Alexander Hamilton and a Teeter Creek Herbalist.  Champions all say “Happy Day!”  The next day Tex Ritter and Jack London share birthdays with Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh and Smokin’ Joe Frazier!  The world is just full of exiting people.  Many of them are Champions and some are just schmoes.  Sort them out around the stove at Henson’s Store on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  It is located in the exact spot where the Historic Emporium served the community for generations–on the wide and wooly banks of Old Fox Creek with its back to the cold North wind and a sunny southern exposure to the wide front porch.  Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!