CHAMPION – January 16, 2007

 

        No complaints of any sort are coming out of Champion.  Cold temperatures make things a little inconvenient, but just a glance over into northern and western counties is enough to remind even the most grumpy that Champion is again the seat of good fortune.

        Some good citizens from this area have gone into Springfield to help out with tree removal and other tasks for some old folks up there.  It is a good time to show our neighborly nature.  Everyone who doesn’t have to go out, however, is cautioned to say home and stay safe.

        The Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Skyline Volunteer Fire Department has postponed it’s meeting again, this time due to the cold.  It will be held in the home of Mrs. Esther Wrinkles on Tuesday, January 23rd.  It will be a productive planning meeting in preparation for the annual chili supper which is scheduled for February 24th.  There is always a lot to do to get ready for one of these affairs.  Fortunately the ladies are up to the task.  Not much is going on around Champion in the cold. Even little shop keepers have let their special birthdays go by with no fanfare.

        The Westphalia Waltz” is a beautiful tune to add to the list of songs about Missouri.  Westphalia is up between here and Jeff City.  It’s a quaint little berg that has kind of a European look to it. (Champion is not a very European looking place, but it is picturesque as all get out.)  So far our song list is:  #1 The Missouri Waltz, #2 Meet Me in St. Louie, Louie, # 3 Take Me Back to Where I Came From and now # 4 The Westphalia Waltz.  One of the radio stations around here that specializes in old time music would probably have a recording of it to play upon request.

        In airports and bus stations around the country soldiers are leaving to go to war and some are coming home.  Outward bound, they part from their families without tears.  They are brave and stoic.  At a bus station recently a family was observed waiting for their boy.  Two teenage sisters, a wife, and a Mother and Father stood outside the terminal as the bus pulled up.  There were tender sweet hugs for the sisters and the mother and then an embrace with the Father that was at the same time beautiful and heartbreaking.  The young man, husky and a little taller than his father, seemed to shrink in the moments that they held each other.  The bristling tension of his body dissolved to a shaking that implied sobs with a Father’s comforting hand stroking and patting his son’s back, the way parents do when their children are hurt.  It was a long moment, held out no doubt by the rarity of an embrace between men.  When they parted at last and the young man opened his arms to his young wife they seemed to have a happy reunion, free of that great weight he had carried off the bus.  What passes unspoken between Fathers and sons is a gift of great Love and Gratitude.

        Send your stories of Love and Gratitude, your songs and poetry, your tails, your observations and news, your hopes and dreams, your criticisms and complaints to Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  Leave them at the Champion Store or e-mail them to Champion News.

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