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CHAMPION—February 1, 2016

A walk in the woods…

        Seventy degrees on the last day of January seems a little unusual, but the new norm for weather the world over now seems to be ‘unusual.’  Daffodils are beginning to emerge, as well as some surprise lilies and the flowering quince is making tiny globes among the brush that will, before long, burst out into brilliant color.  Meanwhile it was a chance to open the windows and air out the house.  Gardens are calling.  Some folks have little seedlings of various kinds up already and are thinking about getting peppers started.  The swift passage of time is on everyone’s mind and in Champion it is tempered with gratitude for another day and awe for the amazing present.  Want-to-be Champion, Melissa Masters, posts on the internet, “Happy last day of January.  Only 48 days until Spring!”

        Zack Alexander lives up in Springfield, but he has Champion grandparents and is often in the neighborhood.  His birthday is February 1st.  Mr. Cooley celebrates that day as well and has been doing so since 1940.  Ground Hog Day gets its own celebration but is also enjoyed by a number of fine folks as a birthday.  They include Judy Sharon Parsons, Charlene Dupre, Angie Heffern, Connie Grand, and Irish Poet and novelist James Joyce, who was born in 1882.

        Rebecca Turcott made her way to Champion again on the last Tuesday of the month.  She works for the Douglas County Health Department and does free blood pressure screenings for people from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square.  Her next visit will be February 23rd.  Cowboy Jack was one of a number of individuals who took advantage of this excellent community service.  Rebecca is also an appreciator of horses and she was overheard confirming that they like the same farrier.  The Cowboy just has two horses these days and that is enough for him.  In the process of dumping a big wheelbarrow load of that good garden additive that horses make, he caught his heel on a rock that has been in his way for decades and took a flying trip down hard flat of his back.  He said he fell harder than he did when he fell in the creek on Bud Hutchison’s trail ride a few years ago.  It knocked the wind right out of him.  He was glad no one was there to see him lying on the ground looking up at the stars twirling around in his vision.  It would have been embarrassing.  He was about over it and was there at the store thinking about his wife’s birthday that day.  He said that Joyce plans to retire exactly a year from the day.  It will be nice for the Cowboy to have someone looking after him full time.  They will be having fun.  A neighbor asked him if he frequents the Wednesday gathering.  He said that he does but he tries to get out of there before ‘it gets crowded.’  Indeed there were reports of a packed house on Wednesday with many of the regular visitors, some infrequent ones and a few new ones.  Some of the same shenanigans were being pulled and the good natured regulars are, so far, still willing to sit through them even with the metaphorical aroma of old fish.  When you lose once sense, others are enhanced, they say.  When you lose your sense of humor, your sense of self-importance seems to be enhanced.  Good humor is endemic in Champion.

        Saturday morning was warm and glorious, a perfect day for an adventure.  A group being called The Facebook Ladies made an expansive tour of Champion.  They are mothers, daughters, sisters and friends.  Shirley Crouch, Carol Barton and Stacie Sperlazza, from Houston, Missouri, met up with Cindy Phillips and Jane Means, of Springfield to see for themselves the place they had discovered on the internet.  They posed for pictures, remarked about the bee tree and the flood debris so high up in the trees along the creek.  They seemed satisfied with the look of the place.  They headed into the store to visit for a spell and to get some Champion post cards to be able to prove to the folks back home that there truly is a beautiful place on Bright Side!

        Tuesday, February 9th, the Skyline VFD Auxiliary will meet at Henson’s Grocery and Gas at 6:30 in the evening for another planning session for the upcoming Chili Supper, which will be on the 12th of March this year.  Everyone is welcome to come and take part in the process of getting good community support for the wonderful little rural volunteer fire department that is here to protect our property and to save our lives when necessary.  All the volunteer firefighters are trained in CPR and First Responder skills.  They are often first on the scene for auto accidents and for home health emergencies.  The annual chili supper is a chance to acknowledge these volunteers for their sacrifices and good works.  David Richardson has agreed to play again and to round up some other good music for the evening.  David is a friend to every good cause in the area.  Someone called him the other day and he could not talk because he was busy unloading a mule.  When asked about it later it turned out to be one of those Kawasaki kinds of mules.  He often joins the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam on Thursdays.  A pot luck dinner gets on the table about six and then the music starts.  It is a welcoming bunch.  One of these days Foster Wiseman will be playing over there with his great uncle Fastpitch.  He played Doyle Lawson’s “Little Country Church” for his mandolin recital and did a bang-up job.

        A note comes from Jeanne Curtis saying, “Skyline School would like to invite District Patrons to come out to an open forum to learn about the proposed tax levy increase.  The Board has placed on the April Ballot a tax levy increase from $2.95 to $3.43 (state required minimum).  The Board and administration will discuss the need for the increase and how much funds the increase would generate for the District.  After a short presentation the Board and Administration will field questions from patrons.  For more information contact Superintendent Jeanne Curtis at 417-683-4874.”  The forum will be held at the school at 7:00 p.m on February 11th.

        While shoveling that good soil additive that the horses make, one was left pondering ALEC.  She asked Lem and Ned who had come to chore for her if they knew anything about it.  Regular readers of The Champion News will recall these fellows show up from time to time to help out around the place.  Lem does not have much to say, but Ned is what Festus Haggen might ‘category’ as plum ‘jabberty’ and a mite ‘eruditious.’  Ned leaned on his shovel handle, looked up at the blue sky and commenced, “ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is a pay-to-play club with secret meetings where corporate lobbyists and state legislators write ‘model bills’ that change our rights in ways that often benefit the corporations’ bottom line at public expense.  Participating legislators bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills.  Now that is what I call a real load of first-rate soil additive!”  Lem and Ned have been pleased that the winter has been so mild that a sweet turnip can still be unearthed.  Ned reminds us that an important election is coming up on the Ides of March.  Educators in all the local high schools say that they have programs in place to encourage seniors who are turning 18 this year to register to vote.  There is a responsibility to being a citizen, even for rusty ankled hillbilly boys.  Lem likes Roy Acuff and can be heard singing “Way back in the hills as a boy I once wandered…” in Champion– Looking on the Bright Side!

The way home…

CHAMPION—January 25, 2016

January Robins

        On Saturday night the big full yellow moon made its way through the clear sky.  It was cold.  It was a great night for a birthday party for a couple of talented young men who do not know each other–Missouri Kyle and Oklahoma Oliver.  The next day red, red robins came bob, bob bobbing along in the front yard.  It was January 24th!  Are they harbingers of Spring, or are they just taunting us?  Whatever the weather, the days are passing one after another and Champions are uniformly grateful for the dawning of each new day.  The big old yellow moon made its path through the clear night sky on Saturday and shown in on sleepers warm and cozy.  Ah!

        Skyline preschool student, Cody Coonts, may be related to middle school teacher, Mrs. Coonts.  In any event they share a birthday on January 25th.  Is it possible that they are both related to Cowboy Jack?  Brooke Johnson is in the 4th grade at Skyline.  Her birthday is on January 26th.  Kaye Heffern Alexander was a student at Skyline back when she was Kaye Heffern.  Her birthday is on the 27th and she can expect a card in the mail.  Erika Strong is a third grade student.  Her birthday is on January 30th.  If James Brixey was 40 years old on January 30, 2012, how old is he now?

        Lannie Hinote has had some adventures since she returned to Alaska after the holidays.  She has been coaching basketball again and very much enjoying it.  She also posted this:  “You know it is time to be grateful your feet are back on the ground when the pilot of the little tin can you have been flying in says it is okay to be scared because he is too….however a free roller coaster ride…. E.B.,  I know how you felt, yesterday but I refuse to say thanks for the experience.”  Lannie is a Champion surrogate adventurer.  Thanks!

        The Wednesday dusting of snow was scant enough that gravel showed through on the county roads and travel was safe.  A number of regular attendees made the effort and were rewarded with a mostly pleasant gathering down on the wide, white, wooly banks of Aulde Fox Creek.  A celebratory chocolate cake from the day before was polished off and some interesting conversations ensued.  Ethel is trying to find the name of a western movie she once saw where the two main characters were sworn enemies, but circumstances forced them to cooperate in order to survive.  They determined that when they reached the river they would resume their hostility.  She did not say how the movie ended.

        The subject of General Custer came up in connection with Ethel’s inquiry about the movie and in connection with that a famous local farrier correctly identified Custer’s marching song as Garry Owen.  He said that the 7th Calvary was serving in Viet Nam when he was there in 1966 and 1967.  They thought their unit was jinxed on account of Custer.  He thought they were jinxed because they thought that way.  They showed him the empty pen that had held the 7th Calvary’s mascot mule.  He was told that the animal had wandered out in an open place and had got it from all sides.  Asking the Google folks later, “What happened to the mascot mule of the 7th Cavalry?” a number references confirm that she did not survive.  Her name was Maggie.  She… “—got blown away by a nervous guy on perimeter guard.”  There are a number of books that tell the story.  The mule was named after Lieutenant Colonel Stockton’s wife.  (There may be an interesting story there.”)  There was some idea that the mule had been named after General Custer’s wife, but her name was Elizabeth.  Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Bacon Custer was only 35 when she became a widow.  In that day women were not supposed to work, but in 1877 she found a part-time job in New York as a secretary at the Society of Decorative Art, an organization that trained impoverished gentlewomen in practical arts (such as needlework) so they could earn a living.  In 1881 Libby traveled to Washington to ask for increases in military widows’ pensions.  Because women were not supposed to talk about money, this was a difficult effort for her, but she was effective.  In 1882 her pension increased from $30.00 to $50.00 and by 1890 the government was paying widows $100.00 per month in benefits.  She lived until 1933.

        Meanwhile, the song Gary Owen (Garryowen) has been around since the 1700’s.  Beethoven got hold of it and composed two arrangements of it in 1809—1810.  These interesting Wednesday conversations always lead from one thing to another and then to exciting research that continues to prove that the past has informed and shaped the present.  It is fascinating.  It was a lovely day Wednesday, cold and snowy, and hardly spoiled at all by an aging self-confessed prevaricator again shaming all honest fishermen with a preposterous tale invented on the spot for no other purpose than self-aggrandizement, and fishing for a fight, casting stink bait across political and ethical lines.  “Let no man pull you low enough to hate him,” said a wise person, Dr. King Jr.  “When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser,” said Socrates, though in this case it was more egocentric pontification than debate.  Garry Owen is more than a song.  And it is not a person, as many people might think.  It’s a place.  Translated from the Gaelic, it means “Owen’s Garden.”  Look for a more about this mid-February for the St. Patrick’s day episode of TCN.

        As per last week:  Road conditions are passable; gardens are burgeoning; passive aggressive behavior is still an enigma.  This week January 25th is celebrated for Robert Burns.  He was a republican fan of the French revolution and a great lover of the American Revolution.  It is fitting that his birthday should be celebrated here in this land of freedom and democracy…”for he sprung from the people, remained to the end one of the people, and his heart was ever with the democratic institutions of the United States.”  There will be special dinners with music and poetry for him this Monday night.  (My love is like a red, red rose that sweetly blooms in June.  My love is like a melody that’s sweetly played in tune.)  Burns was a great fan of George Washington and of all things democratic.  In Mountain Grove a person can register to vote at the Division of Family Services in the Cedar Center, at City Hall and at the drivers’ license bureau across from the Post Office.  Serious efforts to impede voting are going on in a number of states, Missouri included, under the guise of preventing voter fraud, which turns out to be minuscule.  It seems that a low voter turn-out works to the favor of some.  Then there are those who say it does not matter who you vote for, it only matters who counts the votes.  Who owns those voting machines anyway?  Champions everywhere are urged to become informed and participate or to quit your bellyaching.  An important election will occur on March 15th.

        Foster Wiseman was featured on the internet Sunday playing his mandolin.  He is just getting started and is showing some real promise.  He comes from a musical family.  Everyone can remember starting something new.  Children are expected to learn new things all the time.  It is education.  It is growing up.  Old folks often fall into the ‘old dogs-new tricks’ category.  They lament the loss of the effortlessness of their youth and are cowed by fear of failure or of ridicule.  Others embrace their ridiculousness with humor.  Share your curiosity, your questions and answers, your songs and slogans and fearlessness at champion@championnews.us or bring them with you down to one of the world’s truly beautiful places…Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—January 18, 2016

Sunlit debris along Fox Creek.

         Champions are a forward looking people.  Some are looking forward to mushroom season already and are now looking up into the woods grateful for the nine degrees Fahrenheit that may be doing away with some of the ticks and chiggers that plague even the most stalwart mushroom hunter.  They are also most grateful for the warmth of the flame and for the keepers of the fire who bring in the wood and haul out the ashes.  These are the same fellows who keep the water flowing and the truck running and the snow shoveled when it snows.  Respect for those hoary heads is amplified by the list of responsibilities they assume with no expectation of reward other than to keep the home operating smoothly.  Hooray for the menfolk–and for the womenfolk who do that kind of stuff too!  What Champions!

        The Skyline VFD Auxiliary got together the other night for a good meeting.  They are planning the chili supper that will take place on March 12th.  The next meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, February 9th, at Henson’s Grocery and Gas in downtown Champion.  Everyone is welcome to come and to participate in the hard work it takes to make a lovely event like the annual chili supper happen.  This happening is usually one of the first of its kind in the year and it is a chance to get rid of the winter doldrums, to visit with old friends, many of whom only get together at these festivities.  The year is off to a great start with support for the Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department.

        Infrequent visitors to the Bright Side are in for a surprise.  The old farm house on the southwest corner of the crossroads is no more.  It was probably built back in the 1930’s by Ivy and Pearl Hutchison who eventually sold it to Clifford and Esther Wrinkles who lived there for many years before trading it to J.T. and Betty Shelton.  Harley and Barbara Krider acquired it a few years ago and now the property has passed into the hands of the Cothran family–Welcome to new neighbors!  The house had been unoccupied for a while since J.T. moved to Springfield and, consequently, it has made a rapid decline.  Some nice people with heavy equipment came and dug a big hole and pushed the old building into it.  It is buried now and will turn back into soil eventually.  Meanwhile, the foundation for the new house is going in a little higher up the hill and young Chase, who just turned two, will have the extraordinary good fortune to grow up in Champion!  Change is exciting, unavoidable, and constant in Champion and the world over.

        There was a nice young family who used to live up off C Highway back in the late 1970’s, Chris and Fae Giacalone.  They had a son, Chad Knight, and two younger ones, Caesar and Sicily who were born here.  They moved to Republic and later back to Michigan.  The children are all grown up and hopes are that they have started their own young families somewhere away from the poisoned water of Flint.  Even if there were not individuals with whom we have affectionate connections there, the lead poisoning of the water supply is an ongoing tragedy that will play out for generations.  Lead mining and smelting are an important part of Missouri’s history.  It has remained the dominate lead-producing state in the nation.  Wes Smith can point to a spot downstream of the slab across Clever Creek at the junction of County roads 243, 237 and Fox Creek Road where there was a vein of lead ore that local people mined.  Like other minerals and elements with useful attributes, there is definitely a down side to lead.  The Missouri Department of Health says, “Lead affects almost every organ and system in the body.  The effects are the same whether it is breathed or swallowed.  Lead damages the brain, central nervous system, kidneys and immune system.  Lead in the human body is most harmful to young children under six years of age.  It is especially detrimental to children less than three years of age because their systems are developing rapidly.”  There are some treatments available and their success rate is better with early detection.  The test is available at the Douglas County Health Department–a simple finger stick.  The lead the people of Flint are dealing with did not come from rocks in the creek, or old peeling paint or the mini blinds, but from the blundering of individuals whose responsibility it is to husband the resources and provide safe water for the inhabitants of the city.  Whatever their motivation for the catastrophic choices they made, they will surely be held responsible.  The next batch of elected officials will have them as an example of what not to do, meanwhile the full extent of the damage may not be known for a long time.  It is a reminder that choosing the right people for any job is a responsibility that has consequences.   In Douglas County a person can register to vote with the County Clerk in the Courthouse, at the drivers’ license bureau, the office of Family Services and on-line with the Office of the Secretary of State.  Call the County Clerk in your county to find all the places where you might register to vote.  Encourage your high school students about to become 18 to register to vote and to participate in the important decisions that determine quality of life.  There is to be an election on the Ides of March, always an ominous date.

Evening colors.

        The well-practiced fish story was again trotted out for the amusement of the Wednesday bunch, this time perhaps a little longer, with one parenthetical phrase after another until it was finally over and the mark, this time, Larry Dooms, was prime to take the bait.  But he did not.  It got a little quiet.  The erstwhile fisherman/story teller was almost up against it when the Knuckleball Champ stepped up and said, “Well, (pause) if it got away,(pause) how did you know how much the fish weighed?”  Face was saved, and the conclusion was finally reached. “I read the scales as it swam off.” Sigh.  It is plain to see that The General’s retirement will work to the benefit of the weekly meeting.  He also keeps the coffee pot perking over at Vanzant for the Thursday Bluegrass Jam.  He probably just naps the rest of the time.

        Special local birthdays include those of River Stillwood whose day was the 17th.  Mary Beth Shannon and kindergarten student, Jacob Kyle Brixey share their day on the 18th.  Sharon Woods will be celebrating on the 20th and third grader Kyle Barker on the 21st.  First grade student, Elisabeth Hinote, has her birthday on the 22nd and percussionist, Oliver Holden-Moses over in Oklahoma will be 17 on the 23rd.  Enjoy your voyages into another year with health and happiness!

        Next week’s subjects for consideration will be road conditions, garden plans, passive aggressive behavior and, as always, music.  Send any thoughts on any of these subjects to champion@championnews.us or to The Champion News, Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  Go to www.championnews.us for a look back over the neighborhood for the past decade.  Come down to the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek and stand on the broad veranda of the Historic Emporium.  You will be standing in sunshine, sheltered from the cold north wind and can “Count your many blessings.  Name them one by one..” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—January 11, 2016

From the South side of Clever Creek…

Plenty of conversation.

        John Buchan said “The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.”  Heard around the round table where, supposedly, no lies are told because they come around like Karma to get you, “I throwed that little mackey out there….peeled the line off for 300 yards…finally caught my drag…fifteen minutes later…waves moving around the line…got his head up….lips all full of hooks…trying to get him off…broke the line and had to watch him slowly move back out into the creek….”  The story went for three paragraphs, one adverbial clause after another, with comma after comma until a thought was finally completed, the gist of which was:  The biggest fish he ever caught was 26 pounds 8 ounces, but this one that got away was 39 pounds and one ounce.  Pause.  In the quiet room, the sucker asked, “If it got away, how do you know how much it weighed.”  “Well, I’m glad you asked, Wilda,” he said.  Pause.  “I read the scales as he swam off.”  This would have been bad enough, but he had told the same story the previous Wednesday, pretty much word for word, (he rehearses).  On that occasion the dupe had been the illustrious store keeper.  She knew what was coming, as did Bob Leach, who flashed his smile and nodded in encouragement, “Listen to this one.”  Amusing conspiracies and collusions aside, being snookered sometimes is just part of life.  Lessons learned the hard way stick.  Stories like this one have gone on around the same wood stove for generations.  It is a Champion kind of thing.

        Among the interesting artifacts for group inspection was a powder horn, beautifully outfitted with brass and in good working order.  Mr. Partell thought it might be an exotic African animal horn.  Speculation was that it was not buffalo because of a blonde area in the horn.  Mr. Stone happened to have an actual buffalo horn with him.  It was kind of nasty, having only recently been separated from the remains of the rest of the buffalo, and it was definitely all black.  A new regular to the bunch, General Knuckleball, stepped out to his truck to retrieve his rifle.  Jaws dropped as he slowly withdrew the piece from its sheath.  The relic brought every man back to his childhood.  Hand saws and horse rasps in adolescent hands shaped this weapon more than sixty years ago.  It has held up well with a fencing staple for a site and a history of having slain many an imaginary foe in the dense forest in the land of the Upshaws.  Champions all!

The General’s creation stands inspection by Stan and George.

        The first person asked about predictions for the coming year had such dire and cataclysmic expectations for just the next few months ahead that the inquirer abandoned the project altogether and has no plans to pursue the survey further.  The chance stranger to the table may not yet have caught on to the mode o’ day in Champion which is, “Looking on the Bright Side!”  Deward’s Granddaughter on the other end of the room sat in stunned disbelief, her eyes wide asking silently, “Is this for real?”  Certainly the world is big enough for widely divergent philosophies, but the breadth of the difference among people in such close proximity can be staggering.  Stagger on down to the wooly, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek and see for yourself.  It is good to remember that in any given gathering there may well be people (polite people) who believe exactly the opposite things and in most cases they are indistinguishable from each other by their looks.  For your own peace of mind, be sure you are registered to vote and participate in your democracy.  It is a sure bet that “they” do.  The last day to register to vote for the 2016 Presidential Primary is February 17th.  Register with the County Clerk in the Court House.  The Primary Election will be March 15th—the Ides of March, historically a fateful day.

        Wilburn Hutchison shares his birthday with Bob Liebert of Teeter Creek fame on January 11th.  When they were boys, some while back, Wilburn and Fleming Gear saw a dirigible motor over the field they were working.  Diane Wilbanks celebrates on the 13th.  She and Jerry drive white mules and are probably taking the high road out of their place these days.  The Bryant filled their front yard.  The 13th was also the birthday of Norris Woods, who departed the scene recently and has many missing him still.  Willis Masters will have open heart surgery on his 73rd birthday the 14th.  Bert Godkin will be smiling sweetly and celebrating on the 15th.  Judy Ing called him ‘Father Bert.’  Champion grandchildren, Miley Schober and Rese Kutz, are cousins who celebrate on the 16th and 17.  Jacob Kyle Brixey is a kindergarten student at Skyline.  He celebrates on the 18th.  He has a sister and a mother in the same school with him—a lucky guy.  The 19th is the birthday of the singularly hardest working person in Champion, as well as the most pleasant and modest one.  She shares the day with the generous patron of The Champion News, J.C. Owsley, who rides a big white mule named Dot and comes to the Bright Side as often as he can.  Wishing you all a Champion Happy Birthday!

        Weather does not pay attention to the calendar so it can wreck local thoroughfares at any given time.  Those charming men who do the road work for this part of Douglas County are again to be commended for making the country lanes safe and passable so that Champions can receive visitors and can venture out, if they must.  Area residents may not deliver the cookies to the county shed that would say, “Thanks, fellers,” but they appreciate the difficulties of the job nonetheless.  These cold bright days with a good stiff breeze make the birds look fat.  It may be that ticks and chiggers are being frozen out of existence.  Seed catalogues and musical instruments help to pass the time when the cold wind blows and fortunate folks do not have to be out in the elements.  It turns out that Josef Franz Wagner (1865-1908) wrote Under the Double Eagle (“Unter dem Doppeladler”).  The double eagles were on the coat of arms of Austria-Hungry.  The 1893 march has found its way through John Phillip Sousa, Benny Goodman, Monty Python and any number of good bluegrass musicians.  Some of those musicians still play it and Listen to the Mockingbird.  “I’m dreaming now of Hallie, sweet Hallie….and the mocking bird is singing all the day” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—January 4, 2016

Looking East across Fox Creek from Champion

        Brilliant sunshine and warm temperatures helped Champions get a good start on the New Year.  By Sunday Clever Creek was crossable by intrepid travelers though it has taken a week for them to build their courage while the water slowly receded.  On Monday last it was reported that the milk hauler who picked up at the Krider farm felt some serious movement of his rig while passing through the Clever on his way to the Brixey farm.  There are tales of harrowing escapes and mishaps floating around.  They will come to rest around the tables in the meeting room at the Historic Emporium where some will be believed and some taken with a grain of salt.

        Holiday visitors have made a safe return to their home places and Champion friends and family are relieved for the good news.  The open road is a dangerous place even in good weather.  Now the little alertness ‘until they call’ can be replaced with the good memories left behind.  The Tennessee bunch was in town for Christmas and was joined by a mob of cousins, aunts and uncles, grand-people, in-laws, and friends for several days of Champion country fun.  A dear niece and nephew, world travelers, epicureans, enthusiastic laborers, sterling story tellers and conversationalists came home to the farm bringing mandolins and fiddles.  They played their own and tuned and played every other instrument in the house and kept the place jumping with heartening melodies and rhythms and some somber strains as sad news came of deep loss at this otherwise joyful time of year.  The holidays include a space for acknowledging the absence of loved ones with whom we have celebrated in the past.  Memory condenses and softens past moments for us in a way that makes those bygone days seem ideal.  Looking ahead with that same idealism is a Champion goal.

Frankie Catahoula

        Frankie is a Catahoula Leopard Dog, but happens to be all black except for her blue eyes and big brown mottled feet.  She was born in October and is in full sweet puppyhood.  It is clear she will be a keen watchdog.  The breed is said to be ‘a serious working dog who thrives on vigorous exercise and goes about his business with tremendous focus and assertiveness.’  Her people rub her tummy and coo, “You are our big hog killin swamp dog, aren’t you?  Yes, you are!”  On her first trip to Champion Frankie learned to climb steps and eventually how to go down them again.  She has a fuzzy hedgehog with a squeaker inside that she torments fiercely.  Her Champion hosts welcome her and her people back any time.  The bright yellow truck that goes out hunting for Tank, the 80 pound boxer, was seen cruising the roads on Sunday.  It follows that Tank is out on a lark.  Bon adventure!

        Garden catalogues have begun to choke the mail-boxes again.  (Thank you, Karen Ross and your stalwart substitutes, for keeping us connected to the rest of the world via the wonderful USPS.)  The mild weather up to now has provided ample time to clear the garden of last year’s debris and start the process of building the soil for spring planting.  Old Champions who have been diverted from gardening and onto other projects will be running behind.  Their already diminished productivity combined with the exaggerated expectations of a youthful person stuck in an aging carcass might have them set up for disappointment.  Champions, however, live one day at a time and do the best they can every day.  Back in the early 1950s Joe ”Red” Hayes and Jack Rhodes got together to write a song that was inspired by things that Joe’s mother said over the years.  “Money can’t buy back your youth when you’re old or a friend when you’re lonely or a love that’s grown cold.  The wealthiest person is a pauper at times compared to the man with a satisfied mind.”  In the cold days to come Champions will peruse their colorful catalogues and sit around the fire, satisfied that all is as it should be.  They know that no amount of guilt can solve the past and no amount of anxiety can change the future.

        School is back in session and the youngsters will have stories to tell and may take a little while to get back into the swing of their role as students.  Lannie Hinote came home for Christmas and was all over the internet having a good time.  She is back in the classroom in Alaska now and recharged for another term.  After this good break, Skyline students will be ready to apply themselves to the important job of learning.  Good citizens are being made in our beautiful little rural school.  They are learning valuable lessons and hopes are they will be exposed to a journalist named Charles M. Blow, who said “One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm.  The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient.”

        By Thursday at the resumption of the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam things ought to have settled down to a normal routine again.  The potluck there at 6:00 is always a fine spread.  If you don’t want to or cannot contribute to the meal, there is a donation box that will let you eat guilt free.  Everyone is welcome and welcome to bring your instruments and your singing voice, or just your appreciation of a musical get together.  The party breaks up at nine in the evening so farmers can get up in the morning to do their chores.

        The last Wednesday gathering in the cozy meeting room at Henson’s Downtown G & G is reported to have been well attended, if not very well.  Most of those present had taken a long way around to get there and some could not get there at all.  Alas!  It was said that The General appeared, but for lack of media attention, he did not bring out his specialized, hand crafted, antique weapon for perusal.  Perhaps next Wednesday will find him less reticent.  Those absent last time can catch up next time.  Ms. McCleary may well be there with details of her birthday extravaganza.  The actual date is January 4th, but the party has probably been going on for some while now.  The first Wednesday meeting of the New Year may have some prognostications for the year ahead.  The Champion News will endeavor to record for posterity the far reaching thoughts of this stable of sages.  Communicate directly with TCN at champion@championnews.us or at The Champion News, Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  Any news of interest to the community: i.e. birthdays, anniversaries, poetry, music appreciation, and encouragement of any kind is welcome.  Those things are welcome in person down on the debris strewn banks of Auld Fox Creek.  Some northern hay bale has come apart and has come to rest in tuffs in the notches of every bush and shrub and tree up to and above higher than any Champion can reach.  It is a sight in itself and explains the ‘wooly’ banks.  Check it out at the bottom of several hills where the pavement ends in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—December 28, 2015

        Many who were not born in Champion were drawn to the area by the abundance of clean live water.  The springs and creeks and wonderful water table are being recharged nicely and perhaps overly, but Champions will voice no complaint.  Some are marooned by high water–cut off from casual meandering and still uncomplaining, as they learn of the wild storms battering the country and hear of so many in much less fortunate circumstances.  Families have gathered at the end of the year for bonding, loving purposes and are awash with gratitude for the chance.  Others nearby are experiencing unbelievable sadness and challenges as homes are destroyed and lives are lost.  Of course, that is the way it is every day all around the world.  Champions acknowledge their good fortune, extend their sympathies, and offer their help in whatever ways they can.  A favorite Champion writes to family, “For as long as there have been people, wherever they are in the world, they have celebrated at this time of year.  Different groups call it by different names, but it is the anticipation of return of the Light of Day that brings an easing of the malaise brought about by the darkness.  We hope that your celebration is joyous and the dawning of the new light brings you all that you desire.”  Champions will add hope for the safety of everyone and hopes to stay afloat.  Vladimir Nabokov said, “Do not be angry with the rain, it simply does not know how to fall upwards.”

        December slipped by without recognizing the birthdays of Chris Dailey on the 21st and Sharon Sikes on the 23rd.  They both have strong ties to the Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department.  That day was also a big one for a certain Mr. Stone and for Chace, just turned two, who shares his birthday with his dad, David Cothran.  Last week, Eli Ogelsby and his great Uncle Robert were mentioned for their special days on the 30th and 31st.  New Year’s Day is an auspicious birthday for Jan Liebert of Teeter Creek fame, and for Jacob Coon’s old dad.  Jacob will celebrate on the 3rd.  He is an eighth grade student at Skyline.  That is also the birthday of Esther Howard, an always welcome visitor to Champion, though it is seldom these days.  Then comes the 4th.  The Prominent Champion Girlfriend, Ms. McCleary, shares her day with Almartha’s bard who is ever so much older than she and not nearly so good looking.  Apples and oranges, perhaps, but both jolly.

        A bird on a swing, a braiding bird clamp, was one of several items that came in for inspection at the Wednesday gathering.  So far, no set of instructions has been found to make proper use of the curious little gadget.  Another piece for study was a sleek long-bow of the Robin Hood variety—nothing compound or recurve here, just a big, long, elegant bow.  It might take some special skill to use.  A much welcome contingent from Tennessee filled out the group—mother and sons.  These regular, if infrequent, visitors help to keep us reminded of the rapid passage of time (RPT) as the Tennessee ‘boys’ have changed from toddlers to grown men in the blink of an eye.  To the young, days pass quickly and years slowly.  For the old, days pass slowly and years quickly, though the days go by pretty fast too, or it just takes so much less to keep us busy.

        The Old Year left us with the joy and heartache that every old year has set down.  Champions carry forward the parts they like the best.  The New Year, fast upon us, will be exciting for many reasons. The future is almost always fraught with hope, and optimism is a key element for a good outcome.  “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed.  If people all over the world would do this, it would change the Earth.”  William Faulkner.  Mr. Faulkner had a lot of good things to say and the skill with words to make them understandable.  Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.”  Today it is easier than it has ever been to hear what a person wants to hear.  The internet is the great tickler of ears.  Being informed is perhaps as hard as it has ever been.  The last day to register to vote in the March 15, 2016 Presidential Primary Election in Missouri is February 17.  This is the opportunity given us by the Constitution, and a number of amendments to it, that allows us to participate in determining our future.  As voter suppression is an issue in the Country again, it might be a good idea to verify your eligibility while there is time to address any difficulties.  Register at the Douglas County Court House in Ava, or at your County Seat wherever you live.

        When the waters have receded and the roads are all open, make your way down to the wide, wild, and very wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek for a good look at the heart of a thriving rural community.  Send your news, birthdays, ideas, songs and poetry to champion@championnews.us or to The Champion News, Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  (Happy New Year to the wonderful USPS and all your fine representatives!)  Go to www.championnews.us for a look back to earlier years.  Good luck and good health and happiness to all you fine Champions at home and abroad, “Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?…We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne”… in Champion!—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—December 21, 2015

        Champions have been watching out and not crying, not just because Santa is coming to town, but because they are alert and happy by nature.  It is a beautiful time of the year, unseasonably warm and full of all the family fun that makes the weather immaterial.  Christmas has sneaked up on some via the rapid passage of time together with the phenomena that much less is required to keep old people busy.  Ready or not, Christmas will arrive and Champions will be joyful.

        Willard Hall is an 8th grade student at Skyline.  His birthday is December25th.  Champion niece, Corinne Zappler has her birthday on December 27th.  Third grade student, Logan Hull, celebrates on the 29th.  Champion grandson, Eli Oglesby, celebrates on the 30th and his great uncle, General Upshaw, finishes off the year with his birthday on New Year’s Eve.  With a birthday so close to Christmas, and on Christmas, in the case of Willard Hall, these folks must find ways to celebrate throughout the year.  They know they are special.  Unless a person is required to spend his birthday money on Christmas presents, it could be nice to have the whole world celebrating at the same time.  Joy to the world!

        Harley and Barbara Krider were in town for a few days.  They started out at the Wednesday Soiree where they enjoyed visiting with a variety of folks gathered at the Historic Emporium.  Barbara always brings some fun to the table.  Later in the week, they hob-nobbed up in Rogersville with Champion sister, Vivian Krider Floyd.  They slipped quietly out of town on Sunday afternoon.  They have busy Christmas stuff to get done back in Illinois.  The New Year will be brighter on the Bright Side if Harley and Barbara make it back more often.

        Champion’s old friend from Nowata, Oklahoma, Ms. Ethel McCallie, has passed away.  She was a great story teller and letter writer.  The word ‘vivacious’ was probably invented to describe her.  She missed her 100th birthday by eight months.  She liked to tease her friend Esther Wrinkles about being her elder (by two months).  It was a pleasure to know her and to know Esther, who passed away in January, 2013.  Their vivid recollections of growing up in this part of the world provide a solid background and contrast for how things are today.  What a gift it would be to have those dear ladies and many of their generation with us these days to guide us, to keep good manners appropriate and to help us keep perspective when things seem to be so chaotic.  It would be great to have coffee with Esther again and talk politics.  She stayed informed, had strong opinions, and had the strength of character to say that she could still care about people who believed differently.  They were Champions like Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.”

        Pete Proctor came down to Champion on Wednesday last.  He had a flag to trade with a local who had come upon an enormous American flag in good condition.  It may wind up flapping in the breeze on a tall flag pole in town somewhere.  Meanwhile, the Champion will have a more manageable one to fly at home.  Pete is very active in the VFW, officiating for Veterans funerals, and keeping area flags flying properly.  He joined in with some of the regulars talking about the old days and the baseball games.  “Robert had the best knuckleball.”  Stan Lovan happened to stop by that day.  His extensive knowledge of the area helped confirm the location of a place called Chicken Bristle.  Wednesday is always exciting in Champion.  Thursday is exciting in Vanzant, except for this one and the next one.  The Thursday night Blue Grass Jam will resume on the 7th of January.  By then the black eyed peas will have been digested and the New Year will be in full swing.  Some good voices, guitars, banjos and fiddles, bass and the under-the-chin kind, are just the ticket for harmonious beginnings.

        Former Ava area residents, now in Springfield, were honored by their grown daughters with a celebration of the birthdays and anniversary of their parents, Vicky and David Trippe.  It was a glorious affair in the beautifully decorated Kentwood Hall as longtime friends reconnected and new friendships were made across the wide overlapping circles that this couple has generated.  That great swinging band, Hot Mulch, now the Back to the Land Band, was back together again with some fine additions and some of the great old songs like “Ozark Mountain Mother Earth News Freak.”  It says, “Well, I’m moving to the country where everything is fine.  Gonna live in a dome and drink dandelion wine.  When the collapse comes, I won’t get the blues.  I’ll have all the back issues of the Mother Earth News.  I’ll get myself a sweetie and a Volkswagens Van.  See the Real estate man and buy me some land, a few acres cleared with lots of trees—a place we can fix up however we please.  We’ll get our eggs from chickens and milk from a cow, a horse that plows, and a book that tells how, an organic garden growing comfrey and peas.  We’ll get honey from our bees and fruit from our trees.  Self-sufficient that’s the name of the game.  Gonna get myself a system self-contained.  A wind mill to give me my electricity, no phone in my dome, I’ll use ESP.”  It was an amazing time back forty years ago as ‘back to the landers’ came pouring into the country, here and all over the Nation.  They learned a lot of lessons, one being that local folks sometimes appear to be more rusticated and less sophisticated than they really are.  The poor city slicker who thinks he might get one over on a native of these parts will rue the day he tried.  The newcomers and the natives have laughed at each other and have been hornswoggled and helped in both directions, and have become friends and neighbors, have intermingled, intermarried and moved on and stayed on.  Immigrants from the cities and the strife rife back then did not find it easy to be integrated and still are reminded subtly that there is a distinction.  Everybody is from somewhere.  For all the reasons that people the World over celebrate at this time of the year one of the best ones is “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men.”

        Come down to the festive, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek and warm yourself around the ancient stove that has warmed newcomers and old timers for generations.  It may be warm enough to dally out on the wide veranda of the Historic Emporium overlooking the Behemoth Bee Tree on the other side of the Square.  Any Christmas carol or any good song that you feel like belting out will be caught upon the south wind and blown all over.  Join the grateful chorus in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—December 14, 2015

Pre-Christmas mud in Champion

        Once again teachers, parents, siblings, grand and great grand parents, friends and neighbors gathered in the auditorium at the Skyline R2 School, leaning forward on their bleachers, benches and folding chairs, watching intently those precious young ones (and that particularly precious one) shine in the annual Christmas pageant, this year featuring music from “The Polar Express.”  The kids did a great job….each and every one of them.  The applause, the grins and sighs of the audience smacked wonderfully of Christmas Spirit.  Mrs. Casper has been producing magical programs at Skyline while fomenting music appreciation and confidence building performance skills for a lovely number of years now.  Take a bow, Mrs. Casper!  Excitement was already high in anticipation of the first archery tournament that was coming up on the week end in Crane.  Good luck, Tigers!  Skyline students with special reason for excitement this week include prekindergarten, Rachel Prock, and third grader, Destiny Surface, who both celebrate birthdays on the 20th.  Mrs. Barker’s sister, Loretta Upshaw, had a great birthday on the 12th.  It was said to have been so great on account of her having had the chance to entertain and be entertained by The General.  Happy days all–you Champions!

        Four notches were carved into the handle of a beautiful Colt six shooter, one of a splendidly matched pair, maybe from the 1850’s.  It is a community service that Wednesday Visitors to the Historic Emporium bring their beautiful, or historic, or interesting items to share.  It is like a revolving museum.  Finally though, something other than a gun, a bow, fishing gear or a steam driven peculiarity appeared.  A Christmas gift from 1956 was proffered for study—a toy Singer sewing machine.  Ethel Leach was able to locate the identifying marks on the inside of the wheel.  She knows about these kinds of things.  Mr. Stone said he knew where there was one just like it.  Bob Leach said that a little fine steel wool and some oil would work to get the rust off the stainless plate.  Roy Lee said to add a little vinegar to help with the rust.  Ethel has a quilting ‘dove’ she plans to bring next time.  This time, visitors Hazel Dodds and her daughter-in-law, Carol Dodds, stopped in for a sit and a chat. They have been reading The Champion News and were intrigued.  Hazel had been to Champion on a number of occasions in years past.  She came with her mother who was on a tour of nostalgia way back then.  Her mother had family ties in this area and an affection for the place, as many do.  Carol lives in Springfield but is back in this area as often as she can be.  Family connections are some of the good things Champions have going.  Hazel and Carol were on their way to Dawt Mill, on one of those nostalgic tours.  Maybe they will pass back by again and be Wednesday Visitors.  Welcome home any time of the year, you people with Champion connections and affections.

        The Champion News mailbox is receiving–Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  Recent communiques:  “11-29-15 McKinney, TX  Howdy from North Texas.  We’ve had rain since Thanksgiving…over 11 ½ inches so far…  Our yard is standing in water.  Nov. 23rd we celebrated our 50th wedding Anniversary, our picture in the Mtn. Grove News Journal.  We’re still kickin’ here, God gave me a second chance at life.  So I’m making the best of it.  My Christmas is homemade.  Made Angel ⑩, Giovani ⑨, and Natali ⑦ a homemade quilt.  Got to attend my 50th yr. class reunion in Mtn. Grove.  Class of “65.”  Tell all the Champions hello and the best of holidays.  God bless you, Always.  Still hill billies in Texas, Wesley and Karen”   This written in Karen’s impeccable script—beautiful to look at—graceful and precise.  It came with her poem “God’s Gift at Christmas” which is posted on the bulletin board at the Recreation of the Historic Emporium.  Eva Henson Phillips also writes with an elegant hand, asking, “What is going on ‘down on the farm’?  Do you cut your own tree?  We used to do that.  Mom kept them in the cold back room.  Sometimes a tree stayed until March.  We strung pop-corn and cranberries.  Had a program at Champion school.  Always fun.  Those were the days!”  She signs it “Harold and Eva.”  They live off in the beautiful area called Bella Vista, Arkansas.  Bella Vista translates to “Beautiful View.”  They like the way it looks around here too and come back as often as they can.  They have ‘family ties.’  They are Champions.

        In other news, Eulalia Jasmin e-mails to champion@championnews.us from an undisclosed location:  “Champions!  You’ve hit upon it.  Harmony is the only weapon to use against the hideous face of hatred and bigotry.  Those poor Purple People would probably have problems of their own.  Pathetic Pilgrims, like the rest of us, ponderously plugging along.  However, they are purple.  That harmony could destroy them speaks to the discordance of their existence–pitiable.”  On the same subject, a phone call from Brushy Knob was most complimentary of the notion of a space alien invasion as a tool for drawing the Nation—the world–together.  The caller spends much of his time aggravating folks on local talk radio with wisdom of the ages and folly of the times.  He referenced Edmund Burke who said, “The only thing necessary for triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.“  Another caller referenced Sheb Wooly singing about the “one eyed one horned flying purple people eater.”  Politics and purple people aside, Noam Chomsky, who just had his 87th birthday says, “…Jingoism, racism, fear, religious fundamentalism:  these are the ways of appealing to people if you’re trying to organize a mass base of support for policies that are really intended to crush them.”

        Several were late getting to the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam on Thursday because they had enjoyed the Skyline Christmas Pageant.  There was still plenty of good music and camaraderie.  Sally’s brother, the fiddler, is in a beard growing contest with his wife’s brother.  The fiddler is clearly winning, but of course he has the advantage, being musical.  The wife’s brother talks a lot (!) about music.  He and the fellows around the round table and the long table at the Wednesday confab all seem to know a great deal about music.  For example, Glen Campbell, Ferlin Husky, and Johnny Cash were all born in the same county over in southeast Arkansas.  They like Conway Twitty, George Jones and Johnny Horton.  They talked about Harrold Ralph Morrison, Marvin Rainwater and Spec Rose.  Elmer Banks, on a related subject, expressed his continued dismay that Ava Gardner had married Mickey Rooney.  Other dismay has centered on the swift passage of time and the unusually warm weather.  More seasonal temperatures will help to usher in the holiday spirit.  Come down to the broad banks of Auld Fox Creek and stand around the ancient stove to declare your place on the Naughty or Nice List.  Remember to thank your hard working, reliable and underappreciated mail carrier, who conveys your news, your checks and bills, love letters, Christmas cards, catalogues and packages.  Season’s Greetings to and from Champion!  Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—December 7, 2015

Colorful Champion!

Some old Champions were surprised the other day by a big galumphing, romping puppy–a 90 pound boxer of some kind.  He showed up in the early afternoon and spent the day following the old man to the wood shed and the garage and the old lady to the clothesline and compost heap.  He was friendly and affectionate and made himself at home on the front porch.  The old folks called down to Henson’s Grocery and Gas to inquire of a missing beautiful, friendly big dog.  Sure enough, by dark the owners called and came to pick him up.  Tank was his name and while it was lovely to have him visit, the old folks are glad they are not having to feed the immense creature, no matter how sweet he turned out to be.

Dawn Henson had a birthday on the 5th of December that managed to go unnoticed in The Champion News until now.  Hopes are that it was a great day for her.  She lives in Houston, Texas, and makes it back to Champion from time to time.  She married into that big Henson family that includes Hovey, Eva Lois, Randy and Royce.  Their Champion cousin, Deward’s granddaughter, is a frequenter of The Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square where Hensons are always welcome.  Eva Coyote (Kai) was born on December 11, 1975, and grew up near Ava.  Her parents are grandparents now and are still living on the farm.  The 13th is given to a River Rat by name of Richard Green.  He is dripping with Purple Hearts from his time in Viet Nam and with much fine familial affection.  The 14th is a significantly special day for a birthday.  It is enjoyed by 417 Photo Company’s own Shannon Alexander, who can make you look good, however you look.  It was also the birthday of Judy Terry Ing, the truest friend a person ever could have, tragically lost a few years ago.  She was a scientist, an artist, and a dynamo of a bright, exciting personality.  It was always a delight to remind her that she shared her birthday with Spike Jones who could gargle an aria with the best of them.  There is a new kid in town with that birthday.  She will celebrate 14 trips around the sun on the 14th and will doubtlessly dazzle us all one day.  Amanda Mastin has her birthday on the 16th.  She is doing business as Honky Tonk Clothing Company at 2800 East Battlefield Road in Springfield where style meets comfort.  Champion!  Jesse David Ing, Judy’s only son, also celebrates on the 16th.  He is a big time Hollywood movie maker now, but when he was a little boy he came to Champion every summer and jumped off that big rock at the Millpond and gathered seed ticks like all the little hillbilly children.

Seventy-four years ago, December 7, 1941, was the ’day that will live in infamy.’  The events that bloomed out of that tragedy fashioned the people who are the parents, and grandparents of middle aged people who run things here these days.  The horror of that December 7th shocked the Nation and drew us all together against the common enemy.  The military draft was overrun with volunteers as everyone stepped up to serve the Nation in whatever way they could.  The Nation was courageous and unified in the face of the great evil and we won.  Under Article 9, “The Japanese people forever renounce war and the threat of use of force.”  Tragedy today is spread uniformly across all Nations in all kinds of places—in schools, churches, shopping malls, movie theatres, health clinics, care facilities, retirement homes, restaurants, in parks and on the streets and certainly in the hidden domestic violence behind any door you may pass and perpetrated by almost anyone.  We are a more diverse Nation 74 years later.  Because we prevailed back then and continued to be a beacon, representing everything wonderful (freedom, liberty, opportunity), many of the world’s seven billion people have made their way here, even as did our ancestors from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Russia, Poland, Israel, Lebanon, Armenia, Syria, Greece, Italy, Mexico and all those other places all those years ago.  The melting pot is no fit place for xenophobia.  It is difficult for some to recognize our commonality, our mutual humanity, because it all seems so sudden.  “They” are different and “we” are afraid.  A common enemy might be the answer to unifying ourselves again as a Nation.   If so, we are ripe for a space invasion—an invasion of aliens unlike anyone on earth…greenish or purple and not very humanoid, kind of slimy and drippy and smelly, but loud and strong and terrifying, unafraid and mean.   They would be easily identifiable by their stink and therefore so easy to hate.  “Those creepy purple people scare me.”  “They are out to get our women.”  “They are so different.  Yuk!”  “They eat half of their own children—a little at a time.”  “Gross!”  “I hate them.”  “They want to take over.”  “It’s us or them!”  We would rally and reinstate the draft so that even the children of wealthy people would feel like serving honorably, and citizens of every origin would unite to protect ourselves and each other.  Perhaps these nasty space aliens could only be killed by harmony, so the industrial military complex would melt down some of its tanks to make xylophones, banjoes and dobroes.  Quartets on every street corner would join voices and watch slimy purple people sicken with smiles and evaporate—a little at a time so the last thing visible would be a tender tear then ‘Pop!’  They would be gone.  This silliness is to say, fear and division do not work to promote our pursuit of happiness or our sense of security.  The big picture is hard to see up close.  As a Nation our great hope is to find our commonality and to work together for the good of all.  Marcus Aurelius is credited with having said, “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact.  Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”

As the long slender rifle was pulled from its case on Wednesday in the Meeting Room over at the Historic Emporium, the men in the group sighed in unison, “Awwwww!”  They unanimously expressed their approval of the beauty of the gun being exhibited.  One of the ladies remarked that that is the sound women make when a pretty baby is introduced into their midst.  Perhaps the ladies will start bringing interesting items for the show and tell.  A fairly substantial rumor has it that The General himself will soon be in regular attendance.  He is about to retire for the third time and will soon have time on his hands.  He is still making coffee for the Thursday Bluegrass Jam in Vanzant so his life will not change completely.  He will just be around the house more.  Sharon may well be pleased to have a place for him to go.  Of course, her friends would like it if she would come too.  Sometimes ‘retirement’ can hit a wife hard.  He will probably have some unique items to share with the fellas and promises to bring a little culture to the meeting.  He may be the secret musical weapon who eventually saves us all from the NPP (Nasty Purple People) singing that Johnny Cash hit, “Don’t take your guns to town, son.  Leave your guns at home, Bill.  Don’t take your guns to town.  He laughed and kissed his mom and said, ‘Your Billy Joe’s a man.’”  Come down to the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek to hear the rest of that tale, or take time to tell your own.  The music goes round and round in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—November 30, 2015

The ceremonial sumptuous annual feasts of gratitude and great fellowship of family and friends has been accomplished again for another year.  The everyday wonderful food and precious fellowship will go on as it does day in and day out all year long over here on the Bright Side.

Thanksgiving preempted the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam last week.  As the weekly session resumes this Thursday, it will be much changed by the absence of Norris Woods.  His sudden passing is a loss for the whole community.  The last jam before Thanksgiving was a lovely one.  The room was full to capacity with many musicians, elbow to elbow in a great circle—fifteen or more of them—with Norris and his easy smile beaming out over the whole room.  The music was sublime.  If there had to be a last one for this good-natured gentleman, this one was ideal.  It is sweet and sad.  This time of year, when it gets dark so early, by six o’clock on Thursdays, when the pot luck supper is about on the table, the Vanzant Community Building is lit up in a glittering invitation that can be seen from a distance; up several roads, across open fields, doubtlessly from space, and surely from heaven.  Bring a dish.  Bring your instruments and your fine voice.  Or just bring your love of music and appreciation of this lovely community.  Champion has the best neighbors.  The Champion News has a facebook page and on it is a video made by the Midwest Bluegrass Directory.  It is nine minutes of a jam that occurred on July 26, 2013.  See the man with the banjo and the smile.

Ms. Helen Batten, the secretary at Skyline R2 School, kindly shares the birthdays of the Skyline students and staff with The Champion News.  December starts off with Michael Hall, a prekindergarten student, and his birthday on the 5th.  Paul Boyd keeps the school running as the maintenance man and has his birthday on the 7th.  Ms. Karen, Skyline’s Nurse, celebrates on the 9th.  Other people celebrating these days include inveterate peacenik, Bobette Spivey, whose birthday is on the 5th.  She is Hanna’s grandmother and Hanna shot her first deer this year.  Her grandparents are grinning about it, because Hanna loves deer meat.  Biblical scholar, Ed Bell, who herds cattle, builds houses and plays music, celebrates on the 6th, as does an award winning film maker, Zak Godshall, who teaches film at Louisiana State University and keeps close company with a stunning bright star of a Champion great niece.  Chris Tharp, an innovative artist, philosopher, builder and great cook, has his day on the 8th.  Richard Johnston, who grew up over on Fox Creek and successfully wooed one of the Upshaw sisters, started celebrating the 9th of December as his birthday in 1955.  He is a metallurgical specialist and all around nice guy.  The world is full of people—going on seven billion now.  It is a joy to acknowledge the lives of some of the good ones by celebrating their birthdays.  Champions wish you all happy days, you fine folks!

Depending upon where a person looks, he can find anything he wants to hear about anything.  The Champion News has gleaned several uplifting quotes this week.  Tommy Lee Jones said, “Kindness and politeness are not overrated.  They’re underused.”  Gandhi said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”  “Fear does not prevent death, it prevents life,” said Naguib Mahfouz.  Abraham Lincoln said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”  That was a simplification of a speech he made titled, “The Perpetuation of our Political Institutions.”  A presidential candidate assassinated in 1968, said, “There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracks.  They fear the future, mistrust the present, and invoke the security of a comfortable past, which in fact, never existed.”  He also said, “When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, they (you) also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies.  We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of all.  We must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others.  We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled nor enriched by hatred or revenge.”  Nelson Mandela said, “We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.”

Those quotes are helpful in mitigating some of the anxiety perpetuated by fear mongers that suggest that the military leadership is being manipulated to allow fascists regimes to overtake the nation, that our Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy, or any number of other fear laden scenarios manufactured by outfits like “Before It’s News.”  BIN started out to be a citizen journalism outfit; however, sadly it was hijacked by conspiracy theorists and is now an outlet for an ‘unabashedly unhinged’ take on word events and religious prophesy.  They make their money advertising survivalist supplies.  Anyway, it is almost funny that the very folks who are so fearful of the notions of Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’ have absolutely, perhaps knowingly, embraced them and disseminated them.  Those rules, simply put are:  if people separate themselves into groups that dislike each other and fear each other, then they are more easily manipulated.  The best hope for a good outcome lies in taking action.  Register to vote.  Inform yourself.   Participate in determining your future.  “Let mutual love continue.  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it,” said Paul to the Hebrews.  Respectfully, these are opinions and suggestions of The Champion News.  Take it for what it is worth.

The Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion is situated on the broad avenue named Lonnie Krider Memorial Drive.  His birthday was December 4th, and he was another kind man who made great music and loved his neighbors.  The Wednesday meeting last week included some interesting stories, some well-maintained antique firearms for examination, some well received cookies, bandaged knuckles and someone telling Elmer, “You stink!”  That was just because he had managed to soak himself with gasoline at the pump.  He came in anyway and sat down and stunk up the place.  His friends suggested that he go change, that he might get high smelling the gas, that his skin might get burned, that he might catch on fire.  But he sat and visited and had his lunch.  Several hours later, people stopping in were still acutely aware of the odor of gas in the meeting room.  Next Wednesday may tell the tale.  Come down to the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek to tell your tale or tell it to TCN, Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or champion@championnews.us.  Here is a tale that Norris told.  “Life is like a mountain railway, with an engineer that’s brave.  We must make this run successful from the cradle to the grave.  Heed the curves and watch the tunnels.  Never falter, never fail.  Keep your hands upon the throttle and your eye upon the rail.”  That is good advice for Champions—Looking on the Bright Side!