Champion News

Purslane–edible heirloom.

By the time this gets into ink and then makes its way via the wonderful United States Postal Service all the way to Champion, the wagon train will have come and gone.  If you missed it, you can go to www.championnews.us and look for the West Plains Wagon Club in the ‘Champion Neighbors’ category on the right hand side of the page and there you will find pictures and reports of the wagon train going back to 2008.  The wagon train has a much longer history than that.  Back in the 1970s when a young couple had just purchased what is still called the Ezra Henson place, they looked up from their chores that first fall to see a whole string of wagons going by, north up Cold Springs Road.  There were matched pairs of miniature mules in beautiful harness pulling all kinds of little wagons.  There were bigger outfits too, and one or two being pulled by a three-up.  It was a surprise and a delight for the newcomers who figured they had found the right place in the world to make a home.  As the years have gone by the wagon train has become shorter and shorter.  It is not an inexpensive hobby and not many young folks are taking it up.  With their rubber tires, spring seats, and CB radios, we know that these rigs do not compare to the Spartan pioneer wagons of the distant past, but it gives us an idea of how sturdy and resilient our ancestors were as they made their arduous journeys west.  See you next year.  Wagons Ho!

Terri Ryan says, “Thank you, FCS Financial for providing all our kindergarten through 4th grade students with a free book each month through May.  Our students will love it!  We appreciate your investment in our Skyline community.”  It is great to see area businesses supporting our little rural school.  One of the ways we can help is by saving the bar-codes (UPC codes) from the store brands, Best Choice and Always Save.  Also find Box Tops for Education on many General Mills products and Ziploc brands.  You can drop them off at the school or mail them to Skyline R2 School, Rt. 72 Box 486, Norwood, MO 65717.  These are the young people who will soon be running the farms, businesses and the government.  We better give them all the support and encouragement we can.  The Beach Boys sang, “Be True to Your School.”

The 28th Annual Starvy Creek Fall Bluegrass Festival is going on this week.  Many of our local musicians will be up in Conway camping and jamming until way in the night.  They will be back at their regular jams next week happy for their experiences and ready for more music.

Pawpaws.

The Pioneer Heritage Festival of the Ozarks will happen on the first weekend in October, the 5th and 6th.  In addition to all the great music from local bands, there will be opportunities for young people to show off their musical talents and their art work.  There will be demonstrations of traditional skills and crafts, as well as lots of good food, games and contests.  This will be the third year for this family-friendly festival and it looks like it will be another great success.  Among the exhibitors this year will be Jeffrey Goss of Gainesville, who will demonstrate foraging for native foods.  Incidentally, the mailbox at champion@championnews.us has received a New York Times article extolling the virtues of purslane.  It is a succulent, considered a weed by many and a delicacy by others.  Purslane has many beneficial nutrients and there are as many as forty varieties of purslane cultivated for the tables of people across the world.  Gretchen Boisse wrote in to say that they had harvested 24 pounds of pawpaws in about an hour.  She is freezing some for pawpawsicles for next summer.  She says they are extremely nutritious, “It even has an impressive amount of protein.  The pawpaw is fun to harvest, easy to process/preserve, nutritious, delicious and free for the taking for those of us fortunate enough to live out here in this unpolluted beautiful spot on the globe, so full of the resources that we need to not only survive, but to thrive.”

Retired mail-carrier, Patricia Kim Smith, had a birthday on September 15.  Donald Krider, who used to live around here, celebrates on September 18th.  Louise Hutchison passed away in November of last year.  She is well remembered for her good humor, her beautiful singing voice and her service to the community.  Her birthday was September 21st.  That is also the special day for Champion granddaughter in Austin, TX, Zoey Louise.  She shares the day with her distant cousin, Penelope, who lives in the same town.  Adopted Champion granddaughter, Greta Thunberg, will be 17 in January.  She is still up in New York and will speak at the Climate Summit at the United Nations on the 21st.  Her biological grandparents back in Sweden must also be very proud of her.  Sandy Chapin, of “Searching for Booger County” fame, celebrates on the 24th.  Wishing you all marvelous, joyful birthdays from Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Greta Thunberg

This is the little Vanzant Community Building where good things often happen.

Grandparents Day at Skyline was another of those excellent events that will lodge in the memories of students and grandparents and bind them closer yet.  Among the artifacts shared by grandparents were quilts, rub-boards, portable record players with 45 rpm records and a dial telephone.  You know, you have to put your finger in the hole corresponding to the number and turn it clockwise to the stop and maybe the number you call is off the hook.  That phone seems funny and old-fashioned now, but it is how things were when some of these grandparents were school kids.  Now they are old folks, sitting in the bleachers with their eyes watering a little for the joy of grandchildren singing.

“Welcome home, Elva!”  What a party!  The Vanzant Community Building was packed Saturday with family and friends well-wishing for Elva Upshaw as she is making a strong recovery from some very fancy heart surgery.  She beamed her lovely smile all evening.  The pot-luck tables were overflowing with favorite dishes and desserts, and hearts overflowed with gratitude.  Music and laughter filled the hall.  We are again reminded of the value of community and the preciousness of family.  Elva sent out a big thank you.  “…to my family, friends and people I do not even know from the Vanzant/Drury and Champion communities for your generosity.  …Time and time again I have seen community come together to offer support and it was no different for me.  There is no other place I would rather call home.  I am blessed beyond measure!”

Those good-looking Mountain Grove cowboys, Kenny and Jim, will be glad to know that the Century-Tell cable hanging low over the low-water crossing on Cold Springs Road has been repaired.  The guy-wire supporting the phone pole on the west side of the creek had given way so the pole leaned and the wire drooped.  Their observation may have saved some real difficulties for locals.  They will also be glad to know that the West Plains Wagon Club wagon train will be pulling into Champion on September 19th.  Jim Cantrell called in to Henson’s Store to share the good news.  John Webber says they will spend Wednesday night at his place in Drury and he expects there will be four or five wagons, maybe more.  They will come into the Champion Square around noon for a rest and for the community to have a chance to admire their handsome animals and their interesting rigs.  From Champion they will continue on their 100 mile journey.  It takes them a week to go from West Plains to Mansfield.  Maybe the cowboys will join them as outriders for a spell, maybe they will be discussing great American heroes and Cowboy Logic on the trail.

Organizers of The Pioneer Heritage Festival of the Ozarks are busy.  It will happen on the first week end in October, the 5th and 6th this year.  In addition to all the great music from local bands, there will be opportunities for young people to show off their musical talents.  There will be lots of good food, games and contests.  Among the many exhibitions of traditional skills will be soap making, apple butter making, pickling and canning, flint knapping, blacksmithing, turkey calls, wood carving, lace making, spinning, weaving, felting, quilting, basket making, how to cane a chair and many other such things.  This will be the third year for this family-friendly festival and it looks like it will be another great success.  Last year Jody and Royce Henson from Springfield were held up at a train crossing in Norwood for more than an hour, so they backtracked and came to the festival through Ava.  They will probably come that way again this year just to avoid a potential delay.  People will be coming from all over the place.  It will be a good opportunity to meet up with friends you may not have seen in years.

“Not just plain terrible.  This was fancy terrible; this was terrible with raisins in it.”  That is a quote from Dorothy Parker.  We do not know what she may have been referencing, but we can think of several things that could deserve the description these days.  Another quote comes from the esteemed President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican.  He said, “Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels-men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine.  As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.”  In the United States, about 11,000 people turn from 17 to 18 years old every day.  Imagine if they all register to vote!  Some people do not like any kind of social activism blowing in the wind.  Our adopted Champion granddaughter, Greta Thunberg, gets negativity from people who are afraid of change.  She does not care.  She takes it as kind of a super-power to be able to cause people to think.  We are immensely proud of her and of all our young people who are stepping up to public service and taking responsibility to rehabilitate the world they are inheriting.  Champions all!

Hovy Henson wrote an email to champion@championnews.us on September 2nd with the subject line, “I’m excited!”  He reported that he and Dawn had seen their first hummingbird at their feeder.  This is the second year they have put up a feeder and this was the first bird that has visited it.  The population of hummingbirds in these parts is beginning to thin out.  It may be that Hovy’s visitor is on its migration south to the Yucatan.  Seasons are changing.  Tanna Wiseman will have a birthday on September 13th.  Friday the 13th is also the full Harvest Moon.  It last happened in October of 2000, and will not happen again until August 2049.  The 14th is a day to celebrate Frances Sutherland who was 82 in 2014.  She enjoyed the Champion School Reunion last month.  The 15th is a day to appreciate Patty-Tigger and to remember old Champion friend, Elmer Banks.  Elmer did not grow up around here, but he fit in like a real Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Champion Pot-Luck [click here or scroll down for more pictures]

Attending the 35th Champion School Reunion on Saturday, August 31st were: Robert Graham, Royce and Jody Henson, Tom and Valle Mills, Connie, Paul and Robert Brown, Dean, Dailey, and David Upshaw, Fae Krider, Ruth Daharsh, Ethel Luellen Anderson, Louise Rinebold, Phyllis and Pete Proctor, Larry and Teresa Wrinkles, Alvie Dooms, Betty Henson, Lonnie Mears, Wilda Moses, Irene Keller Dooms, Beverly Keller Dooms, Dale and Betty Thomas, Dean Brixie, Darrel Hutchison, Wes Lambert, Judy Keller Mears, Glenna L. Henson, Lee Ray, Laine and Frances Sutherland. There may have been others as well. Of those who signed the register, eleven or twelve had been Champion School students. The weather was as perfect as could have been hoped for. There was no need for the giant walnut tree that served as first base to provide its now scant shade until late afternoon. The grass is lush on the old school grounds that students all recall has having been a big sandy lot—sand four inches deep. The reminiscing was sweet, though there were many thoughts of those absent this time. Friends reconnecting and catching up with each other’s news mixed in with old stories. Grandsons of Rufus Keller shared stories about him, how he raised his own tobacco and shared it with his neighbors and a report of his having said, “He fell out of a barbed wire fence, straddled a cherry tree and tore himself from now till tomorrow morning. The Doctor said he didn’t know if he would live from one end to the other.”

It was another delightful Wednesday out on the wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek. The broad veranda on the Historic Emporium was full of music and fun. Candi and Jeff Bartch have become regular members of the Sometimes Porch Band on fiddle and harmonica. This week Charlie Lambert joined in improving the group substantially with The Spanish Twostep. When it comes to the human brain, music is one of the best medicines. A study at McGill University in Canada revealed that listening to agreeable music encourages the production of beneficial brain chemicals, specifically the ‘feel good’ hormone known as dopamine. Not only does listening to music have a positive effect on stress and depression, playing music reduces stress on both the emotional level and the molecular level. Studies have shown that adults who play music produce higher levels of Human Growth Hormone, which is necessary for regulating body composition, body fluids, muscle and bone growth, sugar and fat metabolism and possibly heart function. So, all you folks with a guitar under your bed that you have not played in 20 years, get it out. Get some new strings and play. It is good for you. Taking up an instrument as an adult, even if you have never played, is one of those ways we can fight off dementia. Just sing and you will be improved by music. There will be a “Welcome Home Elva!” jam where singing will be encouraged at the Vanzant Community Building on Saturday the 7th. Doors will open at 4, a pot-luck at 6 and music, music, music. The General’s daughter is recovering from a very fancy heart surgery and the community is happy to see what a great recovery she is making. Everyone is welcome to welcome Elva home!

At the Grandparents Day program at Skyline R2 School on Friday, September 6th, there are plans to have a living museum. Grandparents will be sharing artifacts and telling stories about their own youth. The program starts at 2:40 PM. All grandparents are welcome, whether or not you have a grandchild in Skyline. It will be a chance to meet Donnie Luna, Skyline’s new administrator. His grandfather was Clifton Luna, sawyer and wagon-master of the West Plains Wagon Club. He says that the family began to record some of his grandfather’s stories in his later years. That is a real family treasure. This Grandparents Day program will help secure that kind of treasure for our grandchildren.

Betty Thomas, Larry Wrinkles, and Wilma Hutchison all share their birthdays on September 1st. You will remember that Betty and Dale Thomas hosted the Pioneer Descendants Gathering down at Yates for many years. The Pioneer Heritage Festival gets its inspiration from that wonderful event. It will take place the first week-end in October–a great family friendly event close to home. Larry Wrinkles is a fine story teller, get him started and you are in for some fun. Wilma Hutchison is the woman who kept Bud Hutchison’s trail rides lined out, photographed and documented for many years. She regularly attends the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam and had that song sung for her last week. They will sing it to her again next time while they are singing to Daily Upshaw. She will beam that lovely smile. Andrew Harden leads Bud’s trail-rides these days and will let us know when the fall ride is scheduled. Phebe Ward celebrates her birthday on the 3rd of September, a day before her Uncle Vernon Upshaw and cousin Dailey share theirs. Skyline first grader, Ely Young, shares his birthday on the 8th of September with a bird-watching bridge player whose nickname was “Crayola” when she was in school. Your friends and families wish you all joyful birthdays from Champion.

Labor Day acknowledges the progress we have made as a Nation in improving the lives of people in the work-force. Those changes came about largely through collective bargaining, a genuinely American concept. We are grateful to live in such an enlightened part of the world, though difficulties abound. Mass shootings around the country help to promulgate the fear many already feel as democracy seems so fragile. It is as if we are all experiencing the dread and anxiousness of those on the east coast facing the terrible hurricane as it approaches. Yet, it is said that we are our best when things are the worst. Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

The old Champion schoolhouse.

School is off to a great start at Skyline R2 where Champion students have been attending since the 1950s.  We have 86 students enrolled and 16 preschoolers this year.  The PTO has a meeting scheduled for after school Thursday the 5th, and the Grandparents Day program will be presented on the 6th.  That will be a great opportunity to meet our new administrator, Mr. Donnie Luna.  He is pleased to be part of the Skyline family and is looking forward to a productive year for the students and the staff.  Attendees at the 35th Champion School Reunion, coming up on August 31st this year, will reminisce about teachers/administrators like Arthur Porter.  He made students try Limburger cheese, which has kept him unpopular among some alumni after 50 years.  Others credit him with putting together that wonderful vocal trio that included Harley Krider, Larry Wrinkles, and Eldridge Hicks.  It was said they could bring a sentimental tear to the most callused eye.  Fifty years hence, Mr. Luna may be the subject of reminisces among today’s students.  He is off to a good start.  Go to www.championnews.us to see reports on the Champion School Reunions past.  Who knows what technology will be available to review Mr. Luna’s tenure off in the future.  Good wishes to him, to the student body and the staff of our precious little rural school.

A note from Jody Henson indicates that she and Royce will again be at the Champion School Reunion.  She included a clipping from the Sunday News-Leader concerning their son, Vaughn Henson, who has received a well-earned promotion in his job, leading his team in increasing company revenues and adding 60 full-time jobs in the Springfield area.  He has been a regular on “The Walk of Ages,” a 4.2 mile stroll from Cold Springs to Champion, which the family has been doing since 2011.  She says they are the red-faced, sweaty ones barely walking or in some cases riding to the finish line.  Perhaps the expected cool-front headed this way will make for a pleasant walk and another good reunion on Saturday.  Ruth Daharsh writes in to say that she will be accompanying her mother, Ethel Luellen Anderson, to the reunion.  They will be coming from Arlington, Kansas to join with classmates, family and friends from all over.  There will be a pot-luck luncheon at mid-day and lots of opportunities for remembering “school days, school days—good old golden rule days.”

The General, along with many others, is looking forward to the turn in the weather where we can expect a succession of cool, dry days.  Though the expansive Upshaw estate in Vanzant’s City Center is in no need of significant grounds keeping, others are not nearly so caught up on their chores.  Due to unusual summer rain-fall, their acres are much overgrown with some considering bailing their clippings.  The General’s breakfast bunch up at the Junction consider him an example for having it together…..whatever ‘It’ is.

Booger County Bluegrass

Shirley Emerson had a scheduling conflict last week and consequently will be in Champion on this Friday morning from 8:30 to 10:30.  She works for the Douglas County Health Department and comes out this way once a month to do blood pressure screenings for the community.  It is a valuable amenity for which we are grateful.

A technical glitch caused several Skyline students to have their birthdays neglected by The Champion News in August.  Apologies and good wishes go out to Caleb Harden–the 5th, Jaycee Hall–the 10th, Cryslynn Bradshaw–the 12th and John Brown III–the 15th.  We acknowledge birthdays because they signify our beginnings and the joy of life.  So, joyfully, we report that two Skyline students, Dana Harden and Lauren Collins, have their birthday on August 25th.  Young Felix Parson may have helped is dad blow out the candles on his cake on the 26th.  Three students share their special day on August 29th.  They are Rowdy Woods, Brantley Kilgore, and Jason Smith.  That also happens to be the birthday of Steve Moody of pulled pork fame, as well as banker, farmer, and school board member—quite a guy.  Walk of Ages, Jody Henson, and sawmill hand, Wes Smith, also enjoy that special day.  Laine Sutherland celebrates on the 30th.  On the 24th, she, along with a score of other family members, was celebrating the 60th wedding anniversary of Calvin and Janice Norman Sutherland.  The 30th was also the birthday of Wayne Anderson who passed away back in 2015.  He played the banjo with Booger County Bluegrass and his smile was one of those that made everyone happy.  Lori Kline Cox, long-suffering wife of “Hi! I’m Johnny Cox,” recently spent a few days in the Champion area, but will have her birthday at home up near Kansas City on the 30th.  Skyline students Jenna Brixey and Aiden Ray Hurt have their birthday on the 31st as does Kalyssa Wiseman.  Your Champion friends wish you all a happy, joy-filled birthday.

On day-13 of her trans-Atlantic voyage in a 60 foot open cockpit sail boat, adopted Champion Granddaughter, Greta Thunberg, reported that they were experiencing rough seas south of Nova Scotia.  She updates arrival time at North Cove Marina in Manhattan, New York to be sometime Wednesday.  Greta is one of the young people bringing the climate crisis to the attention of world decision makers.  She will be addressing the concerns of her generation at the United Nations climate summit in September.

There is a study that shows that a person can improve his health and state of mind by expressing gratitude for three things each day for twenty-one days.  Try it.  It is free.  It is unclear whether they have to be a different three things each day, but one includes “home and family” in every episode of thankfulness and extends the twenty-one days to every single day.  Laura Ingalls Wilder said, “Home is the nicest word there is.”  Families far-flung may often find themselves lonesome for each other and for home.  A dear family member wrote, “Your absence has gone through me like thread through a needle.  Everything I do is stitched with its color.”  Then she asked, “Care for someone?  Let them know.”  That is Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Greta sailing.

Greta Thunberg

Dear Champions, You will find much of this familiar reading. That is because the Douglas County Herald did not give our picnic a single word last week, so we are sending it in again because many subscribers to the print version are not online. In other news–good news, our adopted Champion granddaughter, Greta Thunberg, reported today on her 5th day at sea that it is a sunny day with good winds north of the Azores. What a Champion! She might be singing “An Octopus’s Garden.” It is a good song.

Hundreds of people showed up to make the 33rd annual Skyline VFD Picnic a splendid success. David Richardson did an excellent job as master of ceremonies and the music was great from start to finish. Zola Pike won the beautiful, hand-quilted “Flight of the Eagle” quilt, made and donated by someone who wishes to be anonymous. If she wanted to be praised and admired, she would have told us her name. Thank you anyway, whoever you are. Thelma Sanders won the 50-50 drawing and will be able to make a nice deposit in her savings account, if that is her plan. The free drawings made a lot of picnickers happy. Those prizes contributed by local merchants help to make this a very popular event while proving to be excellent advertising for the generous merchants. The community is pleased to support the merchants who support our fire department. The wonderful picnic food and games made for a good time, but the best time was reconnecting with old friends and new ones. We know we live in a great part of the world. It took a few days for some to recover from the excitement. Volunteers put a great deal of energy into making it such a great event and then worked hard to make the picnic grounds look like nothing ever happened. Thank you to all those volunteers, to the wide community for supporting the Skyline VFD, and thank you to the volunteer firefighters who come to our aid when we need it most.

Aunt Eavvie Sharrock wrote, “Vegetables, Ugh!” in rhyme. “I think I’ll never want to see another tasty black-eyed pea! Beets and carrots I need to list, and to beans, okra and squash I shake my fist! Tomatoes red and peppers green, yuckiest stuff I’ve ever seen. We’ve plucked and shelled, peeled and sliced, with sweat dripping from our knife. Our freezer’s full and so’s our jars. Not much is left but garden tares. High cost of living, we’ve tried to beat it, if God will let us live to eat it.” Gardeners are everywhere, even in the busiest big cities. In this part of the country we are fortunate to have plenty of room and good soil to garden to our hearts content. Still, it would be a monumental task to grow everything we eat. In 2019, we rely on food sources from around the world. Coffee and chocolate are not native to Douglas County. We need wholesalers and truckers and myriad others to keep us fed.

A tidy Champion garden.

Farmers in the Ozarks have always had challenges and now there are Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations to consider. Foreign owned corporations will now be able to set up factory farms anywhere in Missouri, thanks to Senate Bill 391, which goes into effect August 28th. It takes away the right of local elected representatives to pass future health ordinances to protect the health and welfare of independent family farms and communities. Rural citizens, air quality, water and property rights are at risk. Call your Senator. Champion friend, J.C. Owsley, is championing a cause: The Organization for Competitive Markets. He says the hog industry has changed. Concentration in the packing industry has driven most of the family hog producers out of business. Rural communities are suffering.

Uncle Al, the Lonesome Plowboy sang a song, “Eleven cent cotton and forty cent meat, how in the world can a poor man eat?” Uncle Al was a cotton farmer out in West Texas back in the 1930s and 40s. Back in those days the economy was improving from the Great Depression, not unlike today as we are recovering from the great recession. The current economy is going great for people who are already doing well. For old folks on fixed incomes, small family farmers and some people who always find themselves generally underfunded, the economy is not necessarily doing that well. Poor people only have money for food and fuel and those things are getting more expensive. Other necessities often get short shrift. If you are one who thinks the economy is doing well, you are in a fortunate minority. Good for you.

A nice friendly dog has strayed onto the place of Drew Durbin who lives over near Alvin and Beverly Barnhart and is lucky enough to have such nice neighbors. The dog is brown and white, short haired and about 70 pounds. It might be a boxer-bulldog mix—a pretty dog. If his owner recognizes the description and wants to reclaim the lovely animal, call Mr. Durbin at 520-705-2470.

The fourth Friday of the month is the day we can expect Douglas County Health Department Nurse, Shirley Emerson, to be at Henson’s Downtown G and G to do blood pressure checks for people in the area. It is an excellent amenity for the community. She generally arrives about 8:30 in the morning and is there until 10:30. She will be there the 23rd. The 22nd is the birthday of the mother of Eli and Emerson Rose and of Ester Grace Oglesby. Her nephew, Drayson Cline celebrates on the 23rd, and another nephew, Dakota Watts, has his day on the 24th. Dakota has been having health issues over there in Tennessee lately, but he has a big loving family taking care of him. His family and many friends across the country keep him in their prayers. Among those sending good thoughts his way are his great Aunt Barbara Krider and great Aunt Rita Krider who celebrate their birthdays on the 25th and 26th respectively. Happy birthday, you Champions—Looking on the Bright Side!

David Medlock, Dennis Schumate, Sharry Lovan, Gene Collins, David Richardson and Sami McCleary Hutchison
(David and Sami do the free drawings), Teddy Collins, Kelly Hinds and Herbie Johnston
at the grand finale of the 33rd Skyline VFD Picnic.

The 33rd annual Skyline VFD Picnic was a splendid success. Both days started out hot, but by evening, temperatures were perfect. David Richardson did an excellent job as master of ceremonies and the music was great from start to finish. Zola Pike won the beautiful, hand-quilted “Flight of the Eagle” quilt, made and donated by someone who wishes to be anonymous. If she wanted to be praised and admired, she would have told us her name. Thank you anyway, whoever you are. Thelma Sanders won the 50-50 drawing and will be able to make a nice deposit in her savings account, if that is her plan. The free drawings made a lot of picnickers happy. Those prizes contributed by local merchants help to make this a very popular event while proving to be excellent advertising for the generous merchants. The community is pleased to support the merchants who support our fire department. The wonderful picnic food and games made for a good time, but the best time was reconnecting with old friends and new ones. We know we live in a great part of the world. Thanks to all the hard working volunteers who make this gathering better every year. Mr. Rogers (Fred Rogers) said that his mother told him when he was frightened because of something scary in a movie or something scary in real life, like storms, or accidents, fire or war, he should look for the helpers. We look for help from our brave volunteer firefighter helpers here and thank them for protecting our property and our lives.

Good news comes as adopted Champion granddaughter, Greta Thunberg, is preparing to board a solar powered racing yacht to come to America! She will be at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York which will happen in September. In her way, she is being one of our helpers, looking out for the future of all our grandchildren. She is a Champion indeed.

A nice friendly dog has strayed onto the place of Drew Durbin who lives over near Alvin and Beverly Barnhart and is lucky enough to have such nice neighbors. The dog is brown and white, short haired and about 70 pounds. It might be a boxer-bulldog mix—a pretty dog. If his owner recognizes the description and wants to reclaim the lovely animal, call Mr. Durbin at 520-705-2470. It would please him to have the animal go home. His appetite is larger than the two ten pound dogs that officially live there. If he is a singer, Mr. Durbin might be singing, “Move it on Over,” or Nelly McCay’s, “The Dog Song,” if he is a singer. Whether or not he sings, he has moved into a good neighborhood where even the stray dogs are friendly.

Uncle Al, the Lonesome Plowboy sang a song, “Eleven cent cotton and forty cent meat, how in the world can a poor man eat?” Some say, “seven cent cotton,” but the gist is the same. Uncle Al was a cotton farmer out in West Texas back in the 1930s and 40s. Back in those days the economy was improving from the Great Depression, not unlike today as we are recovering from the great recession. The current economy is going great for people who are already doing well. For old folks on fixed incomes, small family farmers and some people who always find themselves generally underfunded, the economy is not necessarily doing that well. Poor people only have money for food and fuel and those things are getting more expensive. Other necessities often get short shrift. If you are one who thinks the economy is doing well, you are in a fortunate minority. Good for you.

The past two years Darrell and Barbara Cooper celebrated their 45th and 46th wedding anniversaries at the picnic. This year their 47th anniversary fell on Sunday the 11th, but they were out at the picnic having a good time anyway. In the year 2023, their 51st anniversary will be on Friday at the 37th Skyline Picnic. See you there! Dean Upshaw has had his birthday celebrated at the picnic on more than one occasion. It occurs on Tuesday the 13th. School will be starting on the 15th and youngsters are getting ready with new clothes and school supplies and with optimism for the year ahead. They may not be aware that these are going to be the days they remember with fondness in distant decades. The Champion School reunion will be August 31st. It always occurs on the Saturday before Labor Day. Every year there are fewer in attendance it seems, but it is still a much treasured annual event. Ruth Daharsh writes that her mother, Ethel Luellen Anderson, was unable to attend last year, but is determined to make it this time to see and visit with her old school chums and enjoy the nostalgia that young Skyline students will be learning about one day off in the future. It is at this reunion when the shade of the magnificent old walnut tree is most missed. The tree was topped in February 2015, and the wild honey bees that had occupied it for generations were able to hold on for a couple of years. The top sprouted out again, a 35 foot tall bush, interesting, but not throwing much shade. Alas! Things change whether we like it or not. Someone recently said, “If you want to know how to predict the future, invent it.” Daydreaming is a well-recognized precursor to invention, so if you see a child, an adult or an elderly person staring off into space, do not jump to the conclusion that he or she is an idler or impaired, but rather consider that this person might be inventing the future that allows us all to be Champions—Looking on the Bright Side!