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CHAMPION—July 1, 2016

Cousins

       Friends gathering once a week or so ask each other, “How are you?”  “What have you been up to this week?”  “How are you doing?” One answers, “I must be doing OK.  At least nothing bad has happened.”  This is a philosophical point that proves itself regularly.  The absence of something bad is indeed the same as something good.  As the Wednesday bunch chatted among themselves and examined items of interest (this time an engraved silver tatting shuttle with work in progress), it was peaceful in the extreme with no unseemly behavior by anyone and no provocative angst.  It was just lovely, particularly as Hoovey and Dawn Henson came for the experience.  They were in town for the annual alumni doings at Mountain Grove High School.  They will be back for the Champion School Reunion in September.  They had already been to Tulsa where Dawn grew up and went to school.  Hoovie had some artifacts of Dawn’s family going back to the time of Abraham Lincoln and it is clear that he considers himself to be lucky to be intertwined with someone of such fine pedigree.  Dawn grew up in the city and has lived in cities all her life.  She likes it.  Whippoorwills might make her as anxious as sirens make country women.  It was a good time for Hoovey to get to visit with cousins, Deward’s Granddaughter and Ethel of Omo.  He had plenty of stories to tell about the generation that included Deward’s daughter.  It is funny what we remember in the way of family stories.  Some are poignant, some humorous, some revisionist and some are there to tie the distant past to the future for the sake of continuity and the feeling of belonging.  Family.  Imagine if Elmer Banks were your Grandfather!  Just think about that.  His grandson, Chris, was visiting from Louisiana–a good looking, well-spoken young man somewhere in his 20s with a nice smile and a polite demeanor.  Years hence he will have stories to tell.  He probably already has some.

       The storm that blew through the Starvy Creek Bluegrass Festival on Thursday evening made its way down to Vanzant before the music was over.  Starvy Creek is up by Conaway, Missouri in northern Webster County–up the road a piece from Marshfield.  Musicians come from all over in their RVs and camp for a few days.  They bunch up and play all night, or so said Sally’s brother as he was planning to go.  The internet news is that Friday dawned beautifully up there and they were all looking forward to a beautiful day.  Meanwhile back at the ranch, it was lovely to see Sherry Bennet out on the east side again and David Richardson down from Norwood.  He’ll be on stage next week at the Vanzant Picnic, Friday and Saturday, the 8th and 9th.  Doug Bean and his wife Bonnie live around Caulfield, MO.  They come out to Vanzant from time to time.  Doug has a great voice of that Bluegrass timber that is called ‘high lonesome.’  He knows old songs with lots of words…fox hunting hound dog songs—always a gift when he sits in to sing.  Over at Champion on Wednesday Hoovie had said that he and Dawn were planning to come to the jam Thursday, but he did not say that Royce and Jody would be there too.  Royce said that he had been reading about this gathering in The Champion News for years and was glad to get the chance to see for himself.  They seemed to have a good time.  The rain had caused Royce to be able to take a day off from work and, hopefully, the storms had all passed before they started their long trip back to Springfield.

       Hooray for the folks in Kunkletown, Pennsylvania.  With great community involvement and a law suit, they were able to stop the Nestle Corporation, which had its sights set on pumping 200,000 gallons of water per day from the aquifer there.  Residents were worried about the impact this would have on local wells.  The predatory water profiteering actions taken by Nestle’ Water Bottling Company in various cities, counties and states has yielded mega profits for Nestle at the expense of citizens and taxpayers.  (Corporate welfare)  During California’s historic drought, the company was siphoning off 80 million gallons a year from the Sacramento aquifer.  Nestle calls itself “The Healthy Hydration Company” and has 67 different brand names for bottled water including Perrier, San Pellegrino, Nestle Pure Life, Poland Spring, and Ozarka.  Company spokespeople have actually said that “water should be defined as a need—not as a human right.”  As to human rights, the United States Supreme Court recently rejected Nestlé’s appeal in a child labor case in Ivory Coast.  It has admitted the use of child slave labor in Thailand and Turkey and is implicated in the practice in countries around the world where chocolate is produced.  “This is awful, what can I do?”  If it says ‘Nestle’ on the package, do not buy it.  It might alter your grocery shopping habits drastically as the company has an enormous number of products.  A person says, “What difference does it make?   What can I do to change the practices of this enormous company?”  Perhaps the only difference will be the peace of mind that you get from not contributing to the evil.  (The absence of something bad is the same as something good.)  Champion sits on a beautiful aquifer.

       The Nation celebrates its birthday on the 4th of July.  On the 5th of July the Dali Lama shares his birthday with Virginia Canada.  Janet Burns and the late Walter Darrell Haden have the 6th marked as their day of remembrance.  That is also the last day to register to vote in order to be able to participate in the August 2nd election that will fill several local offices and will give residents in the Skyline R2 School District the opportunity to pay a few cents more in taxes to insure the financial security of the important little institution.  Of course it is to the advantage of certain entities to keep the population only educated enough to follow orders and to run the machines, but not educated enough to be capable of the critical thinking that would allow them to question.  Passive people are more easily manipulated.  That may be the reason that education is so expensive and so underfunded.  Supporting this little school is a gift that will pay off down the line.

       “Reckon who is having the most fun?”  That was the question under a picture of Buzz Woods and four little grand people, the tallest one being about elbow high, as they were strolling along together engaged in deep conversation.  The annual Tree Huggers Jamboree at the Mill Pond is an event much anticipated and this year attended by many far flung huggers, some from as far away as Portland, Oregon.  Independence Day all around the country is celebrated by gatherings of friends, old ones and new ones, celebrating with good food, music, fireworks and homages to nostalgia and patriotism.  What brings us all together all over the Nation at the peak of the beautiful season is acknowledgement of good fortune.  Though one Old Champion says, “Everything that doesn’t hurt, itches.”  Teeter Creek herb people will be there with friends and family and will have some suggested remedies for those aches and itches and will help fill in the names of some of the wildflowers that are gracing every country lane this time of the year.  Some of those Old Tree Huggers will be harkening back to an old John Prine song, “We blew up our TV, threw away our papers, Went to the country, built us a home, Had a lot of children, fed ’em on peaches” and some of them found themselves in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!