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CHAMPION—May 6, 2013

        In Champion, as in the rest of the country, Mother’s Day is an opportunity for children to express their love and appreciation to their special Mothers. They make cards and draw pictures, and glue macaroni on to various things that then get painted. Mothers hold on to these precious mementos until they are yellow or crumbling with age and then relegate them to shoe boxes with tissue paper, just not being willing to let the priceless memories go. As the years go by gifts become more sophisticated. By the time a person is grown, his Mother has become a mature adult and, with some exceptions, most have accumulated just about everything they need. By and large, Champion Mothers are not looking for things, but for a little time and attention. A visit of an hour or two with a grown child is a real gift. If the child exhibits any interest in her life before he was born, or any curiosity about her as an individual, that is ‘priceless,’ as they say. They also say that a mother is only as happy as her least happy child. So if you want to please the old girl, take good care of yourself and be happy. Champion!

        Jimmy Rogers was called the yodeling brakeman. This is one of the stories he shared through music; “I had a home out in Texas, down where the bluebonnets grew. I had the kindest old mother; how happy we were just we two. Till one day the angels called her, the debt we all have to pay. She called me close to her bedside, these last few words to say. ‘Son, don’t start drinking and gambling. Promise you all always go straight.’ Ten years have passed since that parting, that promise I’ve broke, I must say. I started in gambling for pass time. At last I was just like them all. I bet my clothes and my money, not dreaming that I’d ever fall. One night I bet all my money, nothing was left to be seen. All that I needed to break them was one card and that was a queen. The cards were dealt all ‘round the table, each man took a card on the draw. I drew the one that would beat them; I turned it and here’s what I saw. I saw my mother’s picture, and somehow she seemed to say, ‘Son, you have broken your promise,’ so I tossed the cards away. My winnings I gave to a newsboy, I knew I was wrong from the start. And I’ll never forget that promise, to Mother, the queen of my heart.” That is a song that Jerry Wagner could surely play. He does a great job with “Waiting for a Train.” The General posted that he ‘liked’ bluegrass aficionado, Sherry Bennett’s post of a UTube video to the Facebook that was called Vanzant Community Center Vanzant MO. It is about 39 minutes long and was made in April last year. Jerry and a couple of dozen other well-known area musicians entertained a large crowd of appreciative listeners. This is an ongoing event about every Thursday (except for when it snows.) It commences about six and is worth the drive.

        It looks like a beautiful day for Bud Hutchison’s trail ride. Esther Wrinkles used to like to know when they were going to be in her neighborhood so she could watch them go by. She really enjoyed the wagon trains that come through in the fall too. Champions miss their old friends. Bud’s bunch will see a lot of folks out in their gardens as they go ambling by. Linda’s Almanac from over at the Plant Place in Norwood indicates that the 9th, 10th and 11th will all be good days to plant crops that bear above the ground. They say that those will be cloudy wet days too, so they will be all the better for transplanting. The sun ought to be out nicely still on the 8th though and gardeners getting the plots ready to plant will stand up to wave as the handsome equestrians promenade. They will wipe the mud off the shovel handle as the boys and girls go by and try to figure out just which one of them is the ‘special’ cowboy who seems to get so much attention. They all seem to deserve it.

        School is almost over for the year. The children at Skyline are having their important tests this week. They will get to exhibit the knowledge they have accumulated throughout the year and then will be set free like chickens to run around the yard and scratch up whatever they want to. So begins what will seem like a long, long summer to some of the children. To old folks, already in the autumn of their years, summer will be gone in a flash. Young or old, Champions are of a mind to make the very most of their summer days. Some will pass many hours out on the spacious veranda of the Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square in Beautiful Downtown Champion. They will enjoy the shade and the cool breeze and the company of friends and neighbors coming and going. Visitors will come from far and wide, back to the beautiful Ozark hills and hollows, which truly comprise as pretty a place as there is anywhere on the big round planet.

        There has been some complaint about the length of the Champion News article: “rambling and wordy.” Critique, stories, and suggestions are welcome at Champion Items, Rt. 2 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or at Champion at getgoin.net. The archives at www.championnews.us have every article since August 2006, preserved in unedited original form. Hope is they express appreciation for the amazing beauty of the place, the colorful and interesting history of the place, the colorful and interesting inhabitants of the place past and present, and Optimism. Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!