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CHAMPION—March 17, 2008

        The contrition and overall good behavior shown by Champion St. Patrick’s Day Paraders was just laudable!  Perhaps the tirade of the Champion Parade Committee after the shameful spectacle at the New Year’s Day Parade of Champions (2008) has done some good.  The General has taken it to heart and the business moguls of Champion were hard put to find a single burst balloon or string of green Mardi Gras beads, sequined shamrock, or Blarney Stone.  Apparently, the stringent tone of the CPC on the matter held sway.  The real spectacle, however, was the Easter Parade of Champions!  Barbara Krider with her enthusiasm and jois de vive led off the longest  and most well attended Easter Parade held in Champion in many years.  Her beautiful granddaughters, Elizabeth and Alexandria Slater, followed along in the processional with their great Aunt Rita Krider and (quite a number of ) others.  Vivian Floyd said that she has taken many a turn around the Square in Champion over the years.  As she waved and smiled, her great affection for her girlhood home was obvious.  There were no motorized vehicles to distract from the pomp and gracious splendor of the occasion, though the parade route itself was lined with cars from both sides of Clever Creek as well as a number of distant states.  The enchanted onlookers, applauded wildly and called out words of encouragement and support to the gallant marchers.  Barbara threw candy to the crowd, being sure that Harley caught a piece in the scramble.  Rita’s sister, Ruthie, was in the press of observers, but it was not determined if she had caught any candy.  They had traveled down from Illinois together for the occasion and will have much to talk about on their return trip.  General Upshaw was conspicuously absent and the speculation is that he has as yet to recover entirely from the protracted St. Patrick’s Day festivities.  His public persona will probably not surface again until the Civil War Memorial Dedication on Memorial Day week end.  The community should be about ready by then.

        Spring Break is a big deal in a lot of communities.  South Padre Island off the Gulf Coast of Texas is just overrun with kids from all over the country.  The opportunity to get away from home in an unsupervised atmosphere is just too tantalizing for some to resist.  Their friends are going and they don’t want to be left out.  It is sort of like that in Champion except for the unsupervised part.  Harley and Barbara have been down from Illinois with their beautiful granddaughters, and those Tennessee boys, Dakota and Dillon, will be around for a few more days.  That rowdy bunch from Marshfield that includes Foster, Kalyssa, Madelyn, and Chante` have been swarming all over Champion together with Eli and Emerson Rose and others.  For the next week it will just be bedlam and the old folks at home are so glad.  It is a delight to have such an infusion of youth and vigor in the community, even for a short while.  Champion is a bustling and vital spot on the map on a slow day, but made all the sweeter yet by these dear visitors.

        Old timers around here always tried to get their potatoes planted on St. Patrick’s Day.  This year some old Champions were confused because the almanac said that the 17^th was a ‘barren’ day, but starting on the 23rd root crops can be planted up until the 27^th of the month.  The 28^th and 29^th will be barren days, but then the 30^th and 31^st will still be good for root crops again.  It has happened to some Champions that all their good early planting efforts came to naught with a hard killing freeze six weeks later!  Gardening is a gamble in Champion as elsewhere.  Linda over at the Plant Place in Norwood has her monthly almanac pages available at no charge.  She is busy getting tomatoes started.  She always has some good advice for gardeners to help them have a productive growing season.

        Twenty year old Arkansawyer, Michael R. Sturdivant, died in Iraq on January 22, 2008.  He is one of 3,989 U.S. Service Personnel who have perished there.  They are not “summer soldiers” or “sunshine patriots.”  They deserve the Love and Gratitude of their nation for whom they are doing what is asked of them.

        Over on Jim Bob hill, the Grahams are having some issues with people dumping dogs.  It’s not like the Champion grandmother wrestling with her hatred of cats, these folks like dogs, but they can’t take care of all the dogs that get dumped on their road.  Mountain Grove’s Animal Control officer, Brad Loveless, says that there is no place in the area to take abandoned dogs.  The nearest Humane Society facility is in Houston, MO.  “Texas County has a good program,” he says.  “They are just getting started, but they are doing a good job.”  He also noted that there is a rescue organization in Douglas county called Bear Creek Rescue, but they just take care of horses.  He said that the woman who runs the operation did help him place some dogs one time, but that is not their focus.  Lorrie in the City Hall of Norwood says that they have a small fenced area for dogs that they pick up in town and they don’t keep them there very long, but she did not know of any place in the area where a person could dispose of a dog.  An official in the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department suggested that the dogs be transported to the Humane Society in Springfield or perhaps try to give the dogs away on the ‘tradio’ programs.  Lisa at the Douglas County Animal Hospital also said the Springfield Humane Society or the one in Branson would be the best bet.  She also had some information about the newly organized Animal Welfare League, Jr.  This group is comprised of teachers and students of Ava Schools who meet regularly and work to help raise money to assist the spay and neuter programs for area animals.  There seems to be no place for these animals.  Everyone agrees that it is a big problem in the area.  The Grahams are tenderhearted people who do not want to see these dogs suffering, but they can’t afford to take care of them.  It is also not feasible to transport these dogs great distances, though people have given them rides out to the country.

        A cranky old Champion says, “Well, we ort to just have a dawg-shoot.  We could organize the thang and advertise it and sell tickets to pay for the ammunition.”  His idea is that someone with a back hoe could dig a hole and the community could just get together and have a mass dog killing.  While the notion is absolutely absurd, it would certainly draw attention to the problem and maybe some philanthropic organization would be so appalled that they would cough up a few dollars to address the issue.  This same crank suggested alternately that a bounty could be paid for stray dogs.  “If these folks could get ten dollars for a dog someplace, they wouldn’t be dumping them out here!”  He fails to say who would pay the bounty or deal with the consequences of the ensuing raft of dog theft.  “Well, is there a law against dumping dogs?” he asks, “Is there one against shooting them?”  Champions don’t have the answer but it is certainly being thought about.  Champions do not advocate random dog killing and imagine that such an event would lead to prosecution, though it seems to be OK to let them starve to death……a conundrum.

        “The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size,” writes a distant Champion friend.  She is so right.  The daffodils and crocus and emerging tulips are lifting spirits!  People are out getting their hands dirty and enjoying watching the greens become deeper in color as Spring officially began on March 20^th!  Lilacs are swelling as are hearts with the hope that the long winter will soon be over and old creaking bones can be warmed in the sunshine.

        Blarney, conundrums and absurd notions, things that lift the spirit and swell hearts are welcome at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  E-mail parade pictures or commentary to Champion News.  Stop in at Henson’s Store in the Village any time.  It is on the North side of the Square and is stocked with an eclectic assortment of the finest merchandise.  Additionally, the proprietor will share the phone number of Mary Graham who has a very nice little hound dog to give away to a good home.  In Champion everyone looks on the bright side!