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CHAMPION – March 5^th, 2007 

Good news in Champion!  The words to MY MISSOURI HOME are on their way.  From Ebay for $4.49, a copy of the original sheet music from 1930 is on it’s way by express mail.  With shipping it comes to about $8.00 and while that is quite a lot, the amazing thing is that the World has become so small and accessible.  Thanks to Scott C. Wehner of Midland, TX for locating the sheet music!  He must be a Champion himself or related to one.  Then, of course, Darrell Haden, formerly of Smallette, first mentioned the song back in January so there will be more Gratitude to spread around particularly if it is a likeable tune.  It looks like it will be a catchy number as it is orchestrated for saxophone, banjo and Hawaiian guitar.  Another postcard has arrived from Haden, now of South Fulton, TN.  He said that MY MISSOURI HOME was used in the late 1940’s on KWTO Springfield as a theme song by one of the many live-music shows still being broadcast then on 560 AM.  “I worked there as an announcer from 1955 until the spring of 1957.  Jr. ,’Speedy’ Hawthorn and his trio performed almost every month at Ava’s Avalon Theatre ‘Thursday Night Music.’  As a former KWTO member of several on-the-air groups, he may remember the song.  All I remember of it is: ‘My Missouri Home, my Missouri Home,/ Let me tell you why I’m so blue./ I just long to be with friends  I long to see/ Who still belong to me and you./  My Missouri Home, My Missouri Home/ Open up your doorway/ Because I’m coming your way/ My Missouri Home.’  It sounds like the refrain,” Haden says.  While waiting for the sheet music to arrive with all those words, someone suggested that a better version of MAY THE GOOD LORD BLESS AND KEEP YOU by Meredith Wilson might be made available.  Any old timer around can remember the melody for any young guitar player who wants to learn this Lovely song: 

An e-mail arrived concerning the location of Spotted Hog, Missouri.  It says among other things, “From Champion take the dirt road east until you reach V highway.  Turn left on V, go to highway 95.  Turn left on 95 and go about nine miles to ZZ highway (ZZ is about 34 miles south of Lynchburg).  Turn left on ZZ and go four miles to Cherokee Road then turn right for about one quarter mile.  Turn left on spotted hog road.  Spotted Hog church is about 150 yards off Cherokee Road.”  A good friend over in Spotted Hog had a birthday Monday.  She is young at heart, adventurous, productive and ready for fun!  Linda, who runs the Plant Place in Norwood, is the birthday person!  Things are starting to percolate over there and her free monthly almanac is available again.  It is compiled from a number of sources and informs gardeners with such information as that the 8^th and 9^th of March will be an excellent time for planting root crops and for starting seed beds.  The 10^th -12^th will be poor planting days.  Any root crops planted the 13^th and 14^th will do well.  The 15^th and 16^th are a barren period.  Good fishing days will be the 8, 9, 15, etc.  Some people do everything by the ‘signs.’  It would be interesting to know if the Highway Department has provided Spotted Hog with a sign such as the excellent one in Champion.  [Of course, Champion is on the pavement.]  Speaking of signs, it is also to be reported that the Chinese New Year celebrated on the celebrates the year 2007 as the ‘Year of the Boar.’  It only comes around every ………………years.  That must be why certain odd people are harkening back to the glory days of Spotted Hog.  There were wonderful singings there, attended by Oscar Krider and others, and a well reported Christmas Parade some 25 years ago.  It is a sweet thing to have neighbors.  In this auspicious year of the Pig, it would be good of Champions to reach out to their neighbors to the North (and everywhere.)

Last week the Champion Items appeared on the page with the pictures of the Chamber of Commerce Ladies at their February 17^th banquet modeling dresses that had been made for the Centennial celebration of 1957 and for the nation’s Bicentennial celebration in 1976.  They are lovely, though even the most simple of the day dresses looks like a lot of yard goods to keep out of the mud, or the pig trough, or just to get around in the barn and in and out of wagons.  Appreciators of the old ways and the old days also appreciate the automatic washing machine and plumbing.  Darrell Haden remarked in his recent note that he is enjoying Mr. Curry’s Reminiscent History of Douglas County.  He said that he had bought a copy of it in 1957 for five dollars “when five dollars was worth almost five dollars!”  Excitement will be building for the Douglas County Sesquicentennial Celebration.  Beards are already sprouting.  Hopefully the spirit of the festivities will carry through the whole year and the Skyline and other community picnics will find attendees wearing period costumes this summer.  Then will come the fall and the Pioneer Settler’s Reunion over in Yates.  More than one person is hoping that a serial reprint will be running in the Herald of The Headless Cobbler of Smallet Cave.  Perhaps Champions will be able to lure Mr. Haden home for the Finale!  It’s a small world.  If the crow were to fly a straight line between Champion and Smallette it would be about……miles according to the ………………map.  It’s only about …………miles as the crow flies to Spotted Hog.

The News of Our Military Personnel reported in the Herald is most welcome.  Everything that keeps our service people in our thoughts is good.  Most week day evenings at about 6:50 p.m. the News Hour With Jim Leher on Channel 21 TV gives a silent memorial to the fallen.  They are shown as their deaths are made official and as pictures become available.  Most evenings there are ten or twelve.  It is an honor to see their optimistic faces so dedicated to duty.  It was recently reported by Bob Woodruff of ABC News that during the Viet Nam War there were three seriously injured soldiers for every fatality.  Now they are saying that there are sixteen seriously wounded people for every fatality.  Bless their hearts and the hearts of all their loved ones.  It is a tribute to better armor and to better medical technology that fewer people are dying.  That any are dying is a heartbreak for those they leave behind.  Those Champions who survive don’t need their hearts broken too.  They are our neighbors.

Now we are all looking for Peace Valley.