Champion News

Plentiful, interesting information and reports about today’s solar eclipse have been big news and will continue to be for a while yet. It has been enjoyable. As for much of the rest of the news, some of the persistent partisan political poppycock and primacy of fact is interesting. For example, in the Skyline R2 school board election, The Prominent Champion cast the 80th and final vote. Steve Moody, Samantha Adler, and Wes Woods won their seats and will be doing good work for our great school. Politicking will be pervasive from here on out for a while. Civility is the watchword in Champion where candidates for the District 2 Commissioner’s seat stop in to explain their philosophy and their qualifications. We are fortunate to live in a part of the world where we have a say in what happens out on our beautiful country lanes. They are particularly beautiful now with the redbuds, the dogwoods beginning to open, the little wild purple phlox, and all the other wild treasures.

In addition to politicians, Wednesday had some pleasant and interesting visitors from Idaho spending time in Champion. Another bunch of pleasantness came to the Vanzant Jam along with Joann Lawrence and with Toni the equestrian who plans to be there on a regular basis henceforth. A call is going out for fiddlers for the jam. Music has significant positive properties however you find it. “Keep a little song handy, wherever you go, and nothing can ever go wrong.” That thought is attributed to Rude Valle in 1932, but it has merit today.

Mushroom aficionados are having their hay day and hummingbird scouts are checking us out to see if we are ready. We are ready! Bees are buzzing in the dandelions and redbuds. Gardeners are out there doing what must be done to give us the potatoes and onions, turnips, and beets. The tender stuff that cannot stand a freeze will go in later. The almanacs tell us that the 13th and 14th will be good days to plant flowers and other above ground crops. These are good days to start seedbeds too, or you can go see Sue or some of the other wonderful nurseries in the area. Our first Skyline area swap-meet farmer’s market is happening Saturday from 8:00 to noon. Helen Batten says there will be eggs and chicks and sweet Williams. She is hoping that some other participant will have some creeping phlox of the pink variety to sell or trade. It looks like there may be some nicknacks and whatnots. The folks at the Brushy Knob Church at the intersection of Highway C and 76 have donated their parking lot for this venture. With good luck and good community support, we will enjoy second Saturdays at Skyline all spring and summer. See you there.

Tennessee Champion grandson, and now father, Dillon Watts celebrates his birthday on April 12th. He will probably go fishing. On his birthday on the 14th, Bob Berry will likely drive around in his pretty red Studebaker truck, like himself a 1946 model. Another Tennessee gent, Dustin Cline has a birthday on Tax Day, the 15th. He might be in a race car somewhere, or behind a desk. Happy birthday to all of you. While acknowledging special people in our lives, special thanks go out to grown Champion children who come back to help the old folks. Sons and daughters who show up know what is needed and how to make things better. Love and gratitude go together. Meanwhile, we shall gaze at the beauty around us and hope for peace and ease to all the suffering in the world. Blessed in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Mr. Stone came into the store on Wednesday with a 1997 copy of the Historical and Genealogical Society Journal of Douglas County, Missouri. The article he brought to the attention of The General was about a Civil War rifle that had been abandoned by a soldier who left it leaning up against a tree. The tree grew around it over time. It had been discovered many years later, an interesting local artifact. The gentlemen had both had occasion to see it in various locations. The 1996 issue of the Douglas County Journal has a great piece on The Champion Store. It is featured on the cover. Find a copy in the reading room at the Recreation of the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.

A cool misty day with a brisk breeze may have hampered Easter egg hunts in various Champion haunts, but family gatherings and church meetings still made for a lovely day. Holidays, especially religious ones, call us to closeness with our dear ones, those close at hand, those far away and those who have gone on. We count our blessings to have, and to have had, so many precious people in our lives as we feast and fellowship with family and friends. These days find much of the world in furious turmoil. Wars and disasters both, natural and manmade, are taking their toll. Even if all we can do to help is hope, Champions hope for peace and mediation of suffering.

Grandparents invaded the Skyline R2 School on Thursday afternoon. They came ready to play games and to enjoy some quality time with their young ones. Cookies and punch sweetened the already sweet time, and the library was jam packed with the wonderful book fair going on. Some of those grandparents are alumni of the school and have stories to tell about the old days. The quality improvements to the building and campus over recent years were met with approval. More than one expressed gratitude that such a great little country school still exists out here in the middle of Douglas County and that it is staffed with such genuinely good people. Our Skyline Tigers will go on to run the world before long, and they are getting a good start right here.

A good neighbor who wrote ‘The Champion Items’ for fifty years prior to this permutation once advised that sometimes it is a good thing to make a mistake in the paper. That allows for an opportunity to revisit a subject. Therefore, we gleefully revisit the birthday of Beverly Coffman Emery who will celebrate on April 7th, not April 6th. She will be celebrating with other family members whose birthdays are near her own and with all the population of Vanzant who think she is a Champion.

By the time these words are in ink, the April Fools’ pranks that were played upon us will still be causing chuckles. It turns out that balloons can be used in a wide variety of hilarious ways. It was reported that meatloaf disguised as cupcakes, iced with mashed potatoes, and garnished with chocolate bacon was a better prank than the sandpaper on that other roll of paper. The idea of chocolate bacon might catch on.

Monday’s music jam in Willow Springs is followed by one at Roy’s Store in Dora on Tuesdays, and by jams on Wednesdays at Champion and at the barber shop in Ava. Thursday has one in Vanzant. We have learned via the internet that the Acoustic Jam Session at The Barn will be moving to the Ava Community Center near the square starting April 2nd. All start times remain the same—the door opens around 6:00 to 6:30 pm and the music starts at 7:00pm. Doubtlessly there are jams going on Fridays and Saturdays somewhere in the area. Music is good for us, especially live music. It is especially good for musicians.

Musician and a Champion Scots daughter is sojourning on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. She celebrated her birthday on Sunday and said, “It’s been a crazy Easter weekend here. Madrid must have been empty on Friday because they were all crammed onto the beach in the roasting hot sun. Today we had black skies, howling wind and icy rain, but I still had a good day!” She is a real Champion–Looking on the Bright Side!

 

Wild spring weather changes allowed for the first Champion Sometimes Porch Jam of the year Wednesday. A beautiful day was made more so by Joanne Lawrence, out on a scenic drive, just happening to have her guitar with her. The General’s sweet sister, Fae Krider, and her Tennessee daughter, Staci Cline, enjoyed the music and visiting with friends and neighbors on the warm sunny afternoon. Monday’s wonderful rain and the cold front to follow will have the musicians back inside and pleased for the much needed nurturing moisture.

One old Champion said, “Of the seventeen trees we planted in the 1970s, only this enormous, beautiful, nonbearing, invasive Bradford pear survived the goat. Nanny was her name and she lived on a chain which she regularly broke, to feast upon the bark of the apples, pears, plumbs and peaches. She was not interested in the Bradford pear. For this habit, she was traded off to a woman over by Cobel’s Store who had milk goats. Nanny taught her goats how to jump a fence, so she wound up having to raise all her fences. Why did we have that goat to begin with? The idea of having the goat was that, tethered, she would eat down the grass, brush and weeds on the steep slope we did not want to mow.” Had they been better acquainted with Esther Wrinkles at the time, she would have cautioned them about having goats, and they may have had the sense to listen. Nanny had come with a young Billy, which ultimately became what Texans call “cabrito.” Meanwhile, we hear of a man in the area who is able to graft good pears on to the Bradford. Will it work on a fifty year old specimen?

Skyline archers Jacob Brixey, Joseph Hastings, and Jordan Ellingsworth had a good showing at the State Archery Tournament on Friday at the Branson Convention Center. They had a good time, according to their sponsor.

April has a lot of good things going for it. To start off, there is April Fool’s Day. It has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, though its exact origins remain a mystery. Hoaxes, practical jokes and pranks make for fun if no one is hurt. Laughter at our own expense is good for us. More good stuff comes in the celebrations of birthdays. Skyline second grader, Fredrick Smith, will celebrate on April 4th. The 6th is for fun loving Beverly Coffman Emery who will be celebrated by friends and family till the cows come home. Many will be remembering Bud Hutchison on his birthday on the 8th. The memorial trail ride dedicated to him will take out of Champion on May 15th. Meanwhile, back in April, Skyline will be in party mode big time, recognizing Superintendent Donnie Luna and third grade teacher Candance Mayberry who both have birthdays on April 9th. That will be a Tuesday and school will be in session and full of fun.

A commercial on television the other day promoting a certain internet provider went so far as to say, “Come to the Bright Side!” Folks out here in the almost exact middle of Douglas County on the real Bright Side, relying on that provider, BS, find the commercial ironic. They are excited that White River Connect will soon allow them some real, reliable, substantial connection with the internet. Back in January, WRC’s customer service representative, Brock, said connections here would be happening within two to four months. That could be any time now.

We are advised that sometime in mid-April two broods of cicadas are due to emerge and will be around until about mid-May. It will be noisy and messy. Some old timers caution us to be alert to copperheads during that time, because when the insects shed their skins and drop out of the trees, they become soft, tasty treats for the snakes. We have much to learn from our old timers. Some of them may not be ready to be called old timers, but one of them said, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” That is quite a wonderful thought in Champion–looking on the Bright Side!

 

St. Patrick’s Day was a good day to pick a spring bouquet and a good day to remember that we all came from somewhere. Whenever and however we or our ancestors arrived here, we are grateful for the beauty of the land, for its rich history, for our good neighbors, our comfort and security, and for our capacity to recognize the wonder we find in our ordinary lives in Champion. Monday morning finds fire in the woodstove again as the thermometer finally creeps up above freezing. A good stiff breeze reminds us that spring’s arrival on Tuesday has not much to do with anything other than the calendar. How many hard freezes will we have before May 10th?

Verses in the old hymn “Whispering Hope” refer to the beauty of the world and the peace in our hearts after the storm is over. Photographs of the golden light in the hour after Thursday’s storm filled the internet even as limbs and forest debris littered our lovely country lanes. Ten tenacious musicians made it to the Vanzant Jam with that many in the music appreciation section—undaunted and grateful for the fellowship and for the music. Grateful too were all of us who were spared the destruction, heartbreak, and aggravation that many up and down the road from Arkansas to St. Louis and beyond endured in the wake of that storm. We picked the sticks and limbs up out of the yard, got the lawnmowers ready for the season, and began the annual gripe about having to pick ticks out of our longhandles. Overall, as we look at the strife and suffering of much of the rest of the world, we count our many blessings.

Gardeners are busy. Felix the Farmer writes that in his garden he is growing sunflowers. Again, this year many will be planting sunflowers as an homage to Ukraine and the desperate struggle going on there. The seed packet of some planted on St. Patrick’s Day indicates they will bloom in 75 days. That will be May 31st. Hopes are some peace will bloom out before then—there in Ukraine and in many places in the world. Meanwhile, an old Champion gardener is planning a trip to Sue’s Greenhouse up north of Norwood. Champions who have made that trip already have lovely things to say about the experience. They say to allot plenty of time because there is so much to see and the air smells so good and the people are so pleasant. Closer to home, the Skyline Second Saturday Farmers Market will start up on the morning of April 13th. It is being called a ‘swap meet’ too. There is no set-up fee, so who knows what all will be available out on the parking lot of the Brushy Knob Church. It will be a chance to check out the construction of the new firehouse at the Skyline VFD across the road.

Skyline School students are out on spring break this week. They might be sleeping late or visiting grandparents or going on trips to the aquarium or some other interesting place. Some might be enjoying taking care of their horses and getting ready for the spring trial ride out of Champion on May 15th. Bud Hutchison’s Memorial Trail Ride is one of the highpoints of the season. Even people who have never set a horse enjoy seeing all the beautiful animals and hearing the tales from the trail. Andrew Hardin heads up the ride in memory of his friend Bud. He said the date for the fall trail ride has been set for October 9th. Caleb and his sisters are likely to be on their horses during their spring break. On their break, Teagan and Luxe were down from Rogersville visiting the old family stomping grounds and their Champion cousin Chase. They are the latest of many generations of their families visiting around the ancient wood stove with other area ancients. On the wide wooly banks of Old Fox Creek, at the bottom of several hills, at end of the pavement, where country roads start their winding, find Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

 

A visiting young man helped an old guy cut down a poplar tree that was threatening the house. The old woman wanted a tall stump upon which she planned to sit a flowerpot. It was done. Rocks and flowerpots have topped the stump over the years. Its bark has finally fallen leaving a smooth surface for a dainty female downy woodpecker to peck away. Eventually she has pecked a nice round hole. A tiny chickadee has claimed it for her own and spent the day cleaning house. Trip after trip with a few wood chips she flits up to the red bud tree and lets them fly. People without a dog find entertainment. Also, back to the visiting young man and the old guy. Sometimes old folks feel bad about having to ask for help. They need to remember being a young person who had the privilege of helping someone they venerated and how good it made them feel. Ask for it if you need it. Help if you can. Check in with your favorite old folks.

Retired nurse and crochet artist extraordinaire, Kay Dennis, has just had a birthday. Flaco Jimenez, accordionist with the Texas Tornados, celebrates his 85th birthday on the 11th. On the 23rd, The General’s fair daughter, Elva Upshaw, will share her birthday with a couple of Dons—Don Bishop and Don Powell. Champion’s good neighbor Judie Pennington will celebrate that day with some of her hometown friends. We remember Champion Troy Powell who was born March 26, 1926, and passed away on his birthday in 2001. He loved gospel music and had a wonderful smile. The 27th is for Jocelyn Downs, Skyline R2 School’s language arts and social studies teacher, and for second grader Aliyiea Trujillo. Eighth grader Braxton Mayberry has the 29th for his big day. Fifth grader Tucker Johnson shares his birthday on the 30th with his fifth grade teacher Mrs. Melissa Willhite. Your Champion friends hope all your days are happy ones.

Skyline’s spring break starts on Saturday the 16th and will go all the way through Sunday the 24th. School resumes on the 25th, meanwhile all those students and staff can enjoy some good gardening days. Seed catalogues and warm days have made it exciting. The almanac says the 24th thru the 26th will be fine for sowing grains, hay, and forage crops. It says to plant flowers. The last two days will be good for root crops, but some folks will wait until the 27th or 28th to get their potatoes and beets in the ground. Weather conditions will have something to do with what they are actually able to get done. A hard freeze next week may but the kibosh on their plans. May 10th is considered the last day for a freeze in this area. The lilacs are leafing out. Maybe there will be some beautiful blooms. Some old Champions have wider walkways in their garden and smaller beds for growing things, but they persist. Farmer’s markets will soon be up and running. There will be one at Skyline starting on the 13th of April!

A charming gentleman from Cabool joined the circle at the Vanzant Jam on Thursday. He said he is rusty, that he has not been to a jam in ten years. He borrowed a bass guitar from David Richardson and shared a couple of songs. He did not sound very rusty. Art says he is more country music than bluegrass, but he enjoyed his evening and thinks he will come back again. His new friends hope so. They enjoyed a good conversation about the health benefits of music, listening to it and making it. We associate certain songs with certain people. How often does a song remind you of someone you love or someone you love remind you of a song? It happens often in Champion. Looking on the Bright Side!

 

Someone said March 4th was John Phillip Sousa’s birthday. It was really November 6, 1854, but “March forth” was a cute joke as we are now all thinking about “Stars and Stripes Forever.” “Be kind to your web footed friends, for a duck may be somebody’s mother.” Kindness cannot be overemphasized, particularly in these contentious political times.

Spring forward? Yes! Sunday, March 10th at 2:00 am clocks are to be turned forward 1 hour. Sunrise and sunset will be about an hour later. (We can just move the clocks forward before we go to bed and not have to get up in the middle of the night.) Skyline first grader C.J. Castillo can sleep a little longer on his birthday the 11th. On the 12th we remember two interesting, talented men. Geoff Metroplos was a great builder and gardener and jack of many trades. J.R. Johnston played the banjo and loved all the old songs. He passed his love of music on, and it goes on and on because of Herbie. The 13th is the birthday celebration of Trinity Castillo, a fourth grade student at Skyline. The 15th, known as the Ides of March, is that ominous day when Julius Caesar met his doom, some while back in 44 BC. More recently three sterling individuals, Sam Sonite, Ursula Donnely, and Jacob Moffett, have claimed the day for their birthday celebrations. The 16th is for third grader Lillith Jeffery and for Elizabeth Mastrangelo Brown who was 23 in 2013. Skyline’s Jennifer Trujillo will enjoy the 17th. Your Champion friends wish you happy days all.

Spring arrives March 19th. The Lady Bugs are already here. Good neighbor Judie up on Tar Button Road found her first tick on February 28. The pesky pests should at least wait until spring is actually here. She said she had read about Sue’s Greenhouse here in The Champion News but had never been there. Last week when she had a friend from Little Rock visiting, they decided to check it out. She was much impressed with the enormous greenhouses, the great variety of plants and the friendly, helpful staff. She bought her seed potatoes, her ‘hens and chicks’ to replace ones from her mother that she had lost, and several Coleus. She plans return trips. Gardeners who plant by the signs will take advantage of the 8th and 9th for planting and transplanting. The 12th and 13th will be good planting days for above ground crops. “Oh! The night was dark and stormy. The air was full of sleet. The old man stepped out in the yard and his shoes were full of feet. Oh! It ain’t a gonna rain no more, no more…” The lake at Wolf Pen Hollow has gone bone dry. Forecasts seem fickle these dry days. Mushroom hunters are hopeful for some sprinkles to spark the spores. Frying pans await.

People in the Skyline area have something exciting to anticipate. Starting on April 13th there will be a Second Saturday Skyline Swap Meet/Farmers’ Market to be held in the parking lot of the Brushyknob Church just across the road from the Skyline School at the intersection of Highway C and 76. Helen Batten told us about it. She said it will be for small animals, baked goods, garden produce, jelly, eggs, just about anything. There will be no set up fee. Bring your own tables, tailgates or whatever from 8 to noon, the second Saturday of every month. It will be a chance to meet up with your neighbors and find some good stuff and get rid of some good stuff. While you are there you can check out the progress on the new firehouse construction for the Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department.

Out along Cold Springs Road, way out in the middle of a big field on the west side of the road, finally sprouted the tiny clump of daffodils all by themselves. They found their way there in a flood several years ago. We may have another flood someday. We might have to take the long way around or maybe just have to stay home, but for now we hope for puddles and are being vigilant to fire danger in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

 

Does it seem early for daffodils? They are breaking out all over in Champion. They look smaller this year, but thankfully the deer are not eating them. They go by several names—daffodils, jonquils, and some folks around these parts even call them Easter lilies. They are a real harbinger of spring. Gardeners are raising fences, hauling manure, and thinking about starting some seeds. Felix the Farmer and his bunch already have some pepper plants started. Their fall planted spinach is growing and the garlic is looking good. Champions look forward to hearing what Edie Richardson has going on at her organic farm and how much honey her honey expects to harvest this year. Some rain will really help every growing thing. Creek beds are dusty and fire danger is ominous.

March is about to arrive and with it Skyline R2 School student birthdays. Fourth grader Lotus Winter, prekindergarten Kaison Lancaster, fourth grader Ryanne Harvey, and seventh graders Abigail Grace Rystad and Gabriel Castillo celebrate on March 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th respectively. March 3rd is a big day for Dennis Shumate, who frets a lot, and for The General’s lovely daughter Deborah Barker to celebrate their birthdays. Butch and Joyce Linder have a wedding anniversary that day. Linda Heatherington and Krenna Long have birthdays on the 5th of the month and so the first five days are full of celebrations.

There is so much to celebrate. On the 14th a couple from Wires and Wood, the Springfield bluegrass band, came to the midday Wednesday jam at Champion with a big doghouse bass and a well-played guitar—Mr. and Mrs. Wright. They left a couple of CDs that will circulate through the neighborhood, and they will be welcome back any time. Charlie Lambert made it for a visit on the 21st. He has a lot of good memories of Champion and would like to be living out in this part of the country again. His friends would like that too. That Wednesday was also the day a couple of regular visitors to the Historic Emporium discovered to their amazement that they are cousins, sharing the same great grandma. Neither of them would ever have guessed. Fortunately, The General was there to corroborate.

Various forms of sniffles, bad colds, flu, and whatnot whittled down the audience at the Vanzant Jam on Thursday, but everyone who attended had a good time. Father and son Shumate and a Medlock can play faster than some people can pat their feet—lively, to say the least! Ruth Collins had the birthday song sung to her and she treated the group to a song of her own, which we hope she will sing again. Those folks recovering from their maladies have something lovely to hear when they can come again.

A nice man calling himself David Brooks interrupted a call an Old Champion was having the other day to say that she had won $8,000,000.00 and a new Chevy Tajo truck from Publishers Clearing House. He said once you enter the contest your entry is always eligible. All was going well until he told her the balloons and flowers could not arrive at her door until she had purchased a $500.00 card from Walmart or a CVS pharmacy that would authorize the bank to receive the $8M. He said he was in Springfield and his accent was almost convincing, but the phone identification said he was calling from Jamaica. The Old Champion was grateful not to have been taken in. She is also grateful for a cozy home in a beautiful part of the world with good neighbors and none of the struggles and headaches associated with a sudden significant windfall. The caller-id has been a good tool.

Champions heard a good report of the Fish Fry Benefit for the Barry Family on Friday. The folks at St. Leo’s did a wonderful job and served twice as many people as they expected. Maybe there will be a report this week about who won the quilt and the Raku vase at the raffle. It is most heartening to see the community come together to support this young family. The Jean’s Healthway family of employees and friends has been taking care of the store for Rachel while she has been taking care of her family. Jeff shared a video on the internet that tells us he is making good progress and has a good plan going forward. It smacks valiantly of courage, good humor, and optimism—what a Champion!

While there seems to be no end to the conflict, anxiousness, and suffering in the world, in a moment when a little joy, hope or encouragement appears, it is incumbent upon us to grab on to it for dear life. Spread it all around if you can. Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!