Champion News

53rd Annual Vanzant Picnic, July 11, 2020
[aerial view]

Laine Sutherland suggested the Lonesome Moonlight Waltz as a good one to learn. She loved music and people. The world has lost a dynamo of goodness.

If you are mailing in your absentee ballot for the August 5th Primary Election, it will need to be in the mail to arrive by July 23rd which is 13 days before the election. You can take it directly to the Court House as late as August 4th. If your reason for voting by mail is concern about Covid 19, it will not be necessary to have it notarized. Being able to vote by mail is a great convenience for folks who are working to stay home. The USPS is a real life-line for old folks, some of whom get their medications in the mail. Along with the bills, sometimes a grandchild’s letter graces the mailbox and out here on Route 72, John is one of our favorite people. We like his alternates as well. Their diligence makes life much easier for us. Thanks. John is a big guy. Most likely he has heard “Big Bad John.” He smiles and waves and we can attribute no badness to him.

The only constant, it is said, is change. We have watched the Herald change in recent times and are generally pleased. These days, being pleased about something is a pleasant experience. Congratulations go out to Sue Curry Jones on the occasion of her retirement. The change will be a big one for her, but Champions who have enjoyed retirement for a couple of decades now know that her days are about to get busy in different and interesting ways. (Good luck, Sue. Have fun!) We appreciate her hard work and that of three generations of her family. The Boyink family has brought visible and agreeable changes while maintaining the content and focus of the paper which is “devoted to the interest of all of the people of Ava and Douglas County.” The Herald has been passed into good hands. It generally arrives in Champion on Fridays, making it one of the seven best days of the week. We are looking forward to getting acquainted with Mr. Hoskins and to learning how to pronounce Mascoutah. We might think of him as Jimmy Brown the Newsboy.

Jonnie, the friendly dog, had a busy and exhausting few days out on Cold Spring Road as the traffic between Linda’s house and Marty’s was heavy. She needed to bark at every passing rig from tractors and haying equipment to the little red four-wheeler that Foster whizzed up and down. She does not mind them so much when they go slow, but several bad experiences a few years back with a low flying four-wheeler caused her serious injury and made her think speed is bad. A long strait stretch of smooth sandy road is a great temptation to put the pedal to the metal or the torque to the throttle. Just be mindful of your own safety and please watch out for Jonnie.

2020 Vanzant Picnic – ‘Backyard Bluegrass’ with Jim Orchard and others including Herbie Johnston

The Dog Days of summer are officially upon us. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, they are the 40 days beginning July 3rd and ending August 11th. They get their name from the Dog Star, Sirius, and the days coincide with the annual rising of the star briefly above the eastern horizon at dawn just before sunrise during those days. The Greeks and Romans connected those days with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck. Here in Champion we connect them with raccoons in the corn patch, red ripe tomatoes and frequent trips to the swimming hole. A summertime visit from Harley and Barbara Krider is always welcome. Wednesday, out on the wide veranda at the Historic Emporium, Barbara detailed the damage raccoons are doing to her flowers up in Elmwood, Illinois. It sounds like their whole neighborhood is overrun with them. The pelts are no good in the summertime and no longer bring much in the winter. Harley says there are places in the area where they can be relocated, dead or alive. He and Barbara went to the Vanzant Picnic on Friday and headed for home on Saturday. Champion is always a more interesting place with them around, so hopes are they will be back soon.

2020 Vanzant Picnic – ‘Hot Burrito Breakdown’ with Herbie Johnston on fiddle,
Javan Loadholtz on banjo, Sharry Lovan on bass, and Gene Collins on guitar [video]

Thanks to the Eastern Douglas County Volunteer Fire Department, Pete Proctor, Brenda Massey, Sharry Lovan and others who posted pictures on-line of the 53rd Annual Vanzant Picnic, those who were not able to go for some reason or the other felt like they had been there. Drone footage from an outfit called Missouri Brown Dog Productions featured the turtle race from on high. It was nice to see so many familiar faces and everyone having a good time. All reports are that the music was great. By Monday Sharry had some videos on line of her group, Stringed Union and there was Herbie Johnston fiddling away and dancing his jig. While overall attendance may have been down, it was a splendid affair. For those still sheltering in place there is the wisdom of Henry David Thoreau who said, “I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.” For those lucky enough to be marooned with people whose company they enjoy, the time also passes sweetly. J.C. Owsley shared a good Beatles tune to help us remember how to have fun at home.

The Up and At It 4-H picnic is coming up in a couple of weeks—another excellent gathering. Our summer social season may be less splendid this year, but folks will find ways to adjust to the new situation we find ourselves enduring. The 2020 Norwood Farmer’s Day festival has been cancelled. The committee says “Next year, our 40th Annual Farmer’s Day will be bigger and better than ever!” The organizers of the Pioneer Heritage Festival are doing some good planning. This year it will be at the Ava Fox Trotters Showgrounds. They have a great list of exhibitors already. October seems like a long way off, but as one day melts into another, it will be here soon, and all the thoughtful preparations will pay off. Meanwhile, we will tend our gardens, put up as much food as we can, go wading in the creek and keep the health and safety of all our dear friends and families in our best thoughts. We are optimistic in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

53rd Annual Vanzant Picnic, July 11, 2020

The Grand Old Flag waved and the music swelled and American hearts pumped with pride in our Nation on our 244th celebration of Independence.  This year we seem more mindful, more thoughtful about the whole concept.  It does a citizen good to re-read the Declaration of Independence.  Molly Ivins said, “It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America.”  The traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall was in Springfield over the holiday week end.  It is a humbling experience to view it.  Thanks to all who have served and are serving yet.  It was brats and beer in seclusion on the Fourth of July for many who still harbor hope for a bigger celebration in 2021.

If March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, how will July go out, after having come in with such a thunderous wet and wonderful beginning?  An inch and a half of rain came down in the middle of the day on Wednesday, July 1st, washing away worries of drought.  Friends in Vera Cruz recorded two and a half inches and others out east had an inch and a half.  Local haymakers had it bailed already so there were no complaints to be heard.  It was another delightful day down on the broad banks of Auld Fox Creek made even more pleasant by visitors out on the wide veranda.  Eldon and Judy Russell, from somewhere between Gentryville and Richville, passed a pleasant couple of hours enjoying the little Wednesday Outside Jam, which was much improved by Roberta, Ms. Country Pie!  She says she is making more pies than ever and the most popular one is coconut-cream.  Roy’s is doing well, she said.  Floaters are stopping in.  We are in the midst of full-blown summertime.  Roadside flowers are spectacular and summer skies sublime.

Summertime was on full display on Wednesday the 8th, as waves of local youth rallied on the Square getting ready for a picnic trip to the creek.  Harley and Barbara are visiting for a few days and it was a pleasant visit out on the wide veranda.  Harley added his voice to the Outside Wednesday Jam on some old songs.  He was remembering one called Tall Pines.  He said it was kind of a sad song but in a good way.  He and Barbara have been seen scooting up and down Cold Springs Road on a little red 4-wheeler.  He said the machine was about at its load limit—like driving Jell-O.  The youngsters made him recall the games he and his fellow Champion School mates played.  They invented ball games and made up all the rules.  They played complicated games of marbles and shot so much he rubbed a hole through his thumb nail “right down to the meat.”  They were unsupervised out on the school yard at recess and everyone survived.

Two pieces of mail arrived in The Champion News mail box concerning the letter cited in the June 16th post.  One was from the Crackpot himself, pleased to have been quoted and to have had his idea recognized.  He said he “would just as soon” be known as Crackpot and expressed gratefulness at not having been identified and allowed as how he would be pleased to share more of his good ideas in the future.  The author of the other letter also did not wish to be identified “for obvious reasons,” she said.  She said she liked the Crackpot’s notion that the world could be unified by fighting a common enemy like space invaders.  She thinks we have one in Covid19.  She goes on to say that it would be nice if we could be unified in appreciation, understanding and affection rather than hate and political incompatibility.  She said she remembered the letter because she had seen a posting on the internet that said, “One thing the pandemic has taught is that if America is ever attacked by actual invaders, the Democrats will join the enemy.”  “As a Democrat, your neighbor and friend, my feelings are hurt that you think so poorly of me.  I love our Country as much as you do and I have never been disrespectful of you or your views.” The strident divisiveness of these days makes it hard to not take things personally.  The purpose of so many of those kinds of posts is to spread that kind of divisiveness, so let us try not to get het up and “love thy neighbor.”  Another internet posting: “The law of the universe is simple.  What you focus on not wanting, is what you will get more of.”  Mail on these subjects or any other is welcome at TCN, Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or champion@championnews.us.

Someone said, “I can’t go out because of the virus” sounds weak, whiny and boring.  Try this instead:  ‘I’ve sworn an oath of solitude until the pestilence is purged from the lands.’  That sounds more principled, valiant and heroic—and people might even think you are carrying a sword.” These shut-in days make a thoughtful greeting card in the mail even more appreciated.  Ethel must have her calendar full of special days for people.  Thanks, and thanks to the mail carriers out here doing their good work.  In the early days of the pandemic we recognized the importance of the post office, of grocers, truckers, and all the health care workers and others upon whom we depend.  They are still important and this thing is not over.  Be grateful to those folks and be kind to them.  Be safe and kind to yourselves and strive for Optimism the way we do in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

The Fourth of July on a Saturday and a Full Moon makes this one a special one. We may miss getting to share it with our friends and families as we celebrate in different places together. Yes, there will be lots of gatherings, but many older, vulnerable folks will picnic alone with their bar-b-que, watermelon and apple pie, thinking about the current State of the Nation and the good changes they hope will come. The necessary cancellation of the Old Tree Huggers Jamboree that has a history of more than 30 years will thwart and stymie the myriad enlightened conversations that would have been had over the past, present and future. Those discussions are still going on if only around the kitchen table with the old man or with friends on the phone. Some people just talk to hear their head rattle, but ever so once in a while, something rings true. Whatever that is that rings true for you, it generally conforms to whatever you already believe. There is hardly any point in trying to convince folks who believe differently that you are right and they are wrong. We better just look at each other and grin, maybe shake our heads and leave unspoken our wonder and amazement that people we like and care about can be so obtuse. Harmonize with them if you can “…and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!”

If you wonder if you are doing a good job of hand washing, just get a little fish emulsion on your fingers. By the time you get the smell off, you can be pretty sure your hands are clean. No one has come to claim the bottle that replaces the one Jonnie, the good dog, chewed up. Lena says a person’s fingernails ought to be dirty during the summer. She claims hers are as she works with her flowers and splits wood and what-not outside. She says that Sally and Wilma are doing fine these days. She is making quilts for great granddaughters and keeping track of Jerry and his comings and goings. Maybe he plays the fiddle for her sometime or turns the radio on for a dance. They have been seen to cut a lovely rug. He may know Fiddlin’ John Carson’s tune, “The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster’s Going to Crow.” That is from 1923, a little before Jerry’s time.

Reports are that the Ava Farmers’ Market is doing very well with many more young people participating as vendors and shoppers. That is good news. A note from Champion-South: “the garden is doing well considering the abundant rainfall earlier in the spring everything was slow to start. oh weeds were not slow but produce was very slow we usually have squash by now but just blooming. onions garlic potatoes lettuce dill carrots cukes (just blooming as well) doing good eating snow peas and beans along with lettuce and onion. had a blackberry yesterday there are lots of tomatoes green of course but the peppers were the slowest to start but are hitting their stride now.” Home grown vegetables are dandy, capital letters and punctuation notwithstanding.

A friend shared a great recipe for a refreshing summer iced tea. It makes half a gallon: 2 quarts of water, one and a half inches of ginger root, thinly sliced, a heaping tablespoon of powdered turmeric, one teaspoon of black pepper, and three tablespoons honey. Simmer for half an hour stirring often. Do not strain it. Refrigerate it and enjoy a pleasant tea that turns out to be very beneficial for folks with arthritis since it has all those ingredients with anti-inflammatory properties. Arthritis comes from working hard. Dear friends come from our good fortune. Thank you for sharing the good things. Another friend shares a recipe for jewelweed broth. She says, “Not only is this a tasty cold soup for summertime, it is a superior remedy for poison ivy rash. Sipping 2-4 cups of jewelweed broth, hot or cold, will quell both skin and joint inflammation. Harvest jewelweed (Impatiens pallida or canadensis) by pulling every 4th or 5th plant up by the roots. We are using the entire plant. The redder the root, the more effective this remedy. At home, rinse your jewelweed and place it, roots and all, in a pan, pressing it down very well. Add just enough cold water to barely cover the jewelweed and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, until the water is orange. Cool, then refrigerate or pour into ice cube trays and freeze.”

Unusual atmospheric conditions have rendered our golden hour more golden yet. It is as if Rembrandt has slathered another coat of shellac over our bucolic landscape, a glimmering varnish of softened light. As we go through these stressful days, we hope to know all our friends and families are well and safe. We celebrate the 244 years since 1776 and hope for the safety and health of our Nation. Champion–Looking on the Bright Side!

The appreciation day for paternal parents was a resounding success. The internet was graced with the images of many a fine old gent in his younger days, many of whom have passed on, though the mystic chords of memory hold them close to us no matter how long they have been gone. All those fine fathers and father figures with us now, who work to perpetuate the lessons and values of their predecessors, either want to be the kind of dad they had or want to be a better one. The negligent, hardhearted and heavy handed ones do not get much celebration. Hooray for you good guys and mighty men, and thanks for all you do to teach, guide, protect, strengthen and inspire your off spring.

Jake is a three and a half month old blue heeler who has made a home with Bob and Ethel. He is helping them get over having recently lost the old dog that had been their companion for 16 years. They have been in the hay these days and all seems well with them. Ethel opens gates, cooks and is ready with tools or parts when things break down. They are looking forward to getting back down to Champion one of these days and were glad to hear that things are well here. That is the good news we hope applies to all our friends and kin. With still only three confirmed cases of coronavirus in Douglas County, we are considering ourselves fortunate while we still take safety precautions. The primary election coming up in August is one of those opportunities to participate we do not want to miss. Any registered voter can get an application for an absentee ballot by calling the County Clerk’s office (683-4714) or by stopping in at the court house. When you return your ballot by mail it will not need to be notarized if you are 65 years old and if your reason for voting absentee is your concern over the coronavirus. If you are mailing in your ballot, it must be there 13 days before Election Day. A person can also request an application for a ballot on-line at the Missouri Secretary of State’s office. Some folks are most hopeful that the whole Country will be able to vote by mail at the upcoming National Election. Some are deeply opposed.

A good conversation with Jody Henson revealed that she and Royce are doing well. He will be 87 in October and is still mowing five lawns a week. Jody does all the driving but they are not going much. They have been doing church at home with the East Sunshine Church of Christ via the internet. A good neighbor has been getting their groceries for them for the last three months and vehemently refuses compensation. She says the Bella Vista Hensons and those in Houston are all okay and their families as well. They are wondering if the Champion School Reunion will be happening this year. When we find out, we will let you know.

A Fish Emulsion mystery: First of all, Jonnie is a sweet dog. Just like Old Rattler, she would not harm a fly. Well, actually she is rough on flies, wasps, mud-daubers and hornets, but the rabbits, armadillos, squirrels, ground hogs, possums, lizards, toads and frogs she leaves alone. She would like to play with some of them, but they run away. She came in the other night stinking of fish, which is most unusual, since we have not been fishing, and there are no fishing holes near about. The next day the half full pint plastic bottle of Fish Emulsion appeared in the front yard with the top badly chewed up. Thinking she must have taken it from the neighbor, on the next trip to town a replacement was purchased. The neighbor, however, said that the stuff did not come from them. So the mystery is who has lost a pint of Fish Emulsion up on Cold Springs Road? Stinky. But sweet is the fragrance of the elderberry blossoms. It may be almost too late to harvest a few for elderflower fritters. Blackberries are blossoming and raspberries are already purpling the tongues of itinerant wanderers.

At home, three crows harassed and harried a hawk all across the sky above a Champion garden early on the first morning of summer. They have their own worries and dramas and we have the leisure from our garden bench to observe, assess and judge without the exact perspective of either party. The birds might say, “Mind your own business,” but they hardly pay us any mind. So the best we can do in these stressful times is what Mother said, “Act like you have good sense.” We are doing the best we can out here on our garden benches. Champion! Looking on the Bright Side!

At 4:43 p.m. on Saturday, June 20th, the sun will be directly over the Tropic of Cancer and for the whole world The Summer Solstice marks the longest day of the year. It is the day when the earth is farthest from the sun and the day many consider to be the first day of summer—astronomers do, but meteorologists think summer begins on June 1st. Up in the Arctic Circle they will have 24 hours of daylight. People around the globe will celebrate with feasts, picnics, dances and music. In Northern Hemisphere cultures the day is traditionally thought to be mid-point of the summer season and midsummer celebrations are common in many European countries. The Swedes and others put up maypoles and fun ensues. We say the sun is over the Tropic of Cancer, but we could also say that the Tropic of Cancer is under the sun and the sun does not come up and go down, but the earth spins around and around. Perspective is a tricky business. The very same thing can look different to people depending on many variables, yet we are all Earthlings.

Mail to The Champion News (Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717) suggests that the whole earth is such turmoil, that perhaps we need a common enemy to draw us together. This crack-pot would like to see real aliens show up and he says they should easily be identifiable by color, not our Earthling red and yellow, black and white, but some different color like blue or chartreuse or purple. He also thinks they should be configured differently, like people but with lizard heads and hands, and either really big or really small, so there would be no way they could pass for human. They would come in nasty, people eating swarms and it would be OK to hate them. Everybody in the whole world would hate them. They would stop hating each other and just hate the nasty aliens. While our cracked-pot is out looking for space aliens, the rest of us can work on trying to get along with our fellow humans here on our planet.

Our appreciation of the USPS only grows as we are so much at home these days. The USPS has always been a vital amenity for rural people. Mail-order is still important in the country, though many of us may be shopping on the computer rather than with the Sears and Roebucks catalogues that were a mainstay back in the day. We have been getting our packages reliably for a long time. We handle our finances through the mail and get those precious grandchildren’s photographs and drawings. If we were broadcasting on Radio WTCN, “your dedication station,” we would dedicate this one to John—“John the Generator.” Thanks to all you mail carriers out there on your rural routes.

The Vanzant Bluegrass Jam reopened on Thursday with good safety precautions in place. There was plenty of room for social distancing and hand sanitizer and gloves were available. Some had masks or bandanas down around their necks. It was a small gathering which seems just the right size even though we look back with great fondness to the place having been packed in days gone by. Maybe it will be like that again one day, but for now, our good judgement must prevail, like Luke Combs says, “Six Feet Apart.” Meanwhile, we can enjoy Tim Tamborino’s postings on the Midwest Bluegrass Directory. He shared a piece recorded on June 14, 1923, of Fiddlin John Carson doing “The Little Old Log Cabin in The Lane.” He said, “Many music historians consider this song to be the first recording of a country music hit, and the first country music recording with vocals and lyrics.”

“Wild flowers don’t care where they grow,” according to Dolly Parton, who is a favorite in Champion on account of her great music and her terrific Imagination Library. She has given away millions of books now. She has also been reading bedtime stories for children on-line during the pandemic lockdown. Roland R. Kemler said, “What a lonely place it would be to have a world without a wildflower.” He is an acclaimed photographer who said that pursuing the beauty that nature has to offer is his greatest adventure. He is welcome to venture down any of our rural lanes to be dazzled by the wildflowers and overarching boughs. Along the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek, at the bottom of several lush, green hills, where country roads meet the pavement is one of the world’s truly lovely places—Champion! Looking on the Bright Side!

 

The good news that Skyline voters approved the raise in the operating tax levy is offset a little by the Governor’s announcement of $131 million in budget restrictions on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. There may be help from the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) in the short term, but all our schools will share in the shortfall. Back to the good news: the Skyline community supports our school and will continue to do so while adjustments are having to be made. Superintendent Donnie Luna, all the staff, and the school board will be doing the hard work of keeping our great school going strong. Thank you. And thank you to everyone who is being safe in the pandemic.

Private W.A. Masters, United States Army Air Corps, WWII Anti-Fascist

The Merriam Webster Dictionary folks define “fascism” as #1: a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. #2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control. 75 years ago all Americans fought against fascism. All our “Greatest Generation” of World War II Veterans were anti-fascists. My Dad and all my uncles were anti-fascists. Woody Guthrie had a sign on his guitar that said, “This Machine Kills Fascists.” We may remember him best for “This Land is Your Land.”

Gardens are glorious this year, sending some new fresh vegetable to the table every day and blooming with the optimism of much fruit to come. One Champion noted that when her garden is weed free, well mulched, attractively arranged and bursting forth with produce, no one stops by to see it. On the other hand, when she has let it get away from her and it is weedy, diseased or failing, she can hardly keep people out. They want to take pictures! So it goes. The omniscient they say any time you see a pretty garden there is someone in it. All this isolation makes it easier to be out there even if no one sees. Things that only you see in your garden make it the pleasant place to be in today’s tumultuous times—a butterfly with a tattered wing, a beautiful ribbon snake, or visitors to a dandelion. These recent nights have been so bright a gardener could almost work in the middle of the night. The lightening bugs might help.

Local hay-makers have done a good job dodging the rain and fields are dotted with big round bales. Sometimes the air is full of the hum of distant hay making machinery. It looks like a good year for hay so far. Monday night’s rain was 2.5 inches in North Champion. J.C. Owsley up in Cross Timbers (or over in Jordan) reported almost four inches piling up in his rain gauge and at 8:20 in the morning was still coming down. Cooler weather is on the way for a few days, they say. Last week some were looking for their 12-inch, 3-speed oscillating fan. It is the Ozarks at the end of Spring with summertime fast headed our way.

Show and tell at the Historic Emporium has been interesting lately. A gas powered flat iron was on exhibit there for a while, and has since been taken to a recycler. Another item was brought in the other day by a regular Champion visitor and was identified as a horse clog. It is a three pieced wooden apparatus configured to go around a horse’s foot in such a way to prevent the animal from being willing to run. It is an old thing, but it would still work.

The reward for making a recent rare trip to town was running into Karen Ross. Karen was the Champion mail carrier for a long time. She has another route now and seems to like it just fine, though she asked to be remembered to all her old Rt. 72 friends. Her husband, Mike, is running for sheriff of Wright County, so she must be extra busy these days. We miss Karen, but are very pleased with our new guy, John. Often lately his is the only vehicle going down Cold Springs Road. The USPS has always been an important amenity for rural people. John is doing a good job and is much appreciated.

These are being beautiful days in Champion in spite of the great National and global turmoil. In times like these we think of FDR. He spoke often of our four great freedoms: freedom from fear and want and freedom of speech and religion. Those are things we contemplate in the comfort of our peaceful, rural homes. Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

 

Every path has a few puddles. We, in Champion, do not have to haul water to fill our puddles these days, though in days to come we may pray for rain. Meanwhile, we pray for the health and safety of our dear ones—our family and our friends, and for the health and safety of our Nation and of the whole world. Odd times, these. Odd, yes, but glorious out here in rural America—when have we had such a magnificent spring? Each spring seems like the first, always amazing. The grass in the broad rolling fields is high and the contours are softened making that “Sea of Grass” illusion very clear. Back in 1936 Conrad Richer wrote a novel by that name. It was set in the late 1800s and dealt with the clash between rich ranchers, whose cattle ran freely on government-owned land, and the homesteaders, a version of that fight still being fought in some areas. It portrays the end of the cowboy era on the Great Plains. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn appeared in a movie based on the novel in 1947. Romance and conflict make good entertainment. Conflict seems ubiquitous these days. Brian Haggerty (February 26, 1953-July 27, 1976), was wise beyond his years. He said, “Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes the bear gets you.” He passed through Champion in the 1970s making it a livelier, better place for a few days. He was an optimist and, as Susan Bissonnette said, “An optimist is the human personification of spring.”

As of the 11th of May, the community got even better with the arrival that day of young James IV. His parents, D.J. and Talisha Mastrangelo, are delighted with their 7lb 5oz baby boy. He has a full head of beautiful straight blonde hair and a home full of the joy and excitement that comes with such a wonderful package. He is named after both his great-grandfathers, Dominick and James, so he is another D.J. Mastrangelo–the fourth one. He will be called James to avoid confusion.

There may be some confusion about how to drive in the rain as there have been reports of several accidents recently. It was the smile of good fortune that there were no serious injuries on 76 Highway on Thursday. Our local firefighters and first responders were willing to work out in the pouring rain to keep traffic moving around two separate accidents. James’ dad was among those volunteers and we can always pretty much count on him for a smile. Later there was a report of someone having to be towed off the Fox Creek Bridge, but details are sketchy, which leads to speculation that the creek came up fast and hard and his rig drowned out in high water, or that someone pausing to take pictures off the bridge was then unable to get her car started again. Look for a complete report about the incident laden with facts sometime in the vague indefinite future. Meanwhile, here is the promised account of the Fox Creek crossing by Bud’s Intrepid Trail Riders. Andrew Hardin said they had no difficulty with the horses crossing Fox Creek there just east of Champion. He said he might not have been willing to drive across it, but the horses had no trouble. The water was wide and fast moving, but not too deep. Their trouble had been at the crossing up on Fox Creek Road with a tree down over the slab. Andrew and half a dozen other guys wrestled it around so that it was crossable. One horse was good for stepping in water and for stepping over trees, but to step over a tree into the water was more than the animal had in mind without some serious coaxing. Eventually everyone was able to cross and, at the end of the day, the excursion was considered to have been a sterling success–a beautiful day.

Okra

Champion BFF, Felix the Farmer, heard his old (grand) Papa say, “If I had it to do over, I would put our garden on a hilltop somewhere.” Papa will be sure there will be plenty edible pod peas for Felix to munch and when things dry up, he will be glad his garden is where it is. He has a birthday coming up on Election Day, Tuesday the 2nd of June. He would elect to have people straighten up and act right during these bizarre and unfamiliar times. He said he loved okra but never planted it because his family did not like it, but now that he is an old man and can do what he wants, he reckons he will plant a couple of hills, a Central Texas heirloom variety. Some are surprised that there are such great perquisites in becoming old. You know you are old when what you used to think was old now seems young. Enjoy!

As far as doing it over, well, that might be a wish for many of us about one thing or another. We are reminded that timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance, that good judgement comes from experience and a lot of that experience comes from bad judgement. We are, as a general rule, doing the best we can, making the best decisions we can with the information available. Reliable sources of information are those which conform to your personal beliefs. A lot of the other person’s point of view just makes you sick. Ridiculous, how can they believe that stuff? Are they mentally deranged or evil? Many of “them” are our friends, our neighbors, our families! We better find a way to get along. Behave the way your Mother taught you.

There was Great Plague back in 1665. Samuel Pepys, a member of the British Parliament and Secretary of the Admiralty, wrote in his diary, “The taverns are full of gadabouts making merry this eve. And though I may press my face against the window like an urchin at a confectioner’s, I am tempted not by the sweetmeats within. A dram in exchange for the pox is an ill bargain indeed.” Just west of Fox Creek, and south of Clever Creek, at the end of the pavement and at the bottom of several beautiful hills, folks are being safe, careful, thoughtful, helpful and kind—Champions—Looking on the Bright Side!