Champion News

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!

A question came up during the organizational meeting of The Pioneer Heritage Festival of the Ozarks (PHFO) on Saturday.  Who in the area is growing sorghum that they would be willing to donate for the event when it comes up on the first week end of October?  The PHFO does not need a large amount, just enough for a display alongside the sorghum mill being repaired and donated for the occasion.  If you have a little sorghum to share, drop a note to champion@championnews.us and the Pioneer folks will get the message.  They are working hard to make their third annual event another sterling success and all those at the meeting were very excited to learn that the Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department Picnic is about to happen again—its 33rd year!  They will come out to see how a little volunteer fire department picnic has had such longevity.  They are in for a treat.  Many will remember the hilarity last year as Beverly’s little sister had to be rescued from D.J.’s tractor-pulled barrel train.  There is a photo commemorating this incident up on the wall in the Vanzant Community Building and online at www.championnews.us where many pictures of picnics past can be found.  This week local merchants are pledging their support with donations of goods and services to be shared as door prizes.  Members of the fire department are out shopping for the ingredients for the pies, cobblers and cakes they will contribute to the cook shack and the cake walk.  “Oh me, oh my!  Love that Country Pie!”  With the fun and games, the great music, picnic food and the chance to reconnect with people that you only ever see at these summer festivals, Friday and Saturday night this week will be prime time for enjoyment.  It is also the opportunity we have as a community to express our appreciation of the generous volunteer fire fighters and first responders who put their own lives on hold while they come out to protect our property and our lives.  For some of those PHFO folks who might be unfamiliar with this part of the county, the picnic grounds are adjacent to the Skyline R2 School at the intersection of Highway C and 76 Highway.  It is about 15 miles south of Norwood and about half way between Mountain Grove and Ava and about three miles North of Champion as the crow flies.

Greta Thunberg

Sparky Clark Shannon had a birthday on August 3rd.  Lavonne Carter has one on August 6th and Carson’s Uncle Roger will have one on the 8th.  He was born in 1968, so he is getting ‘up there.’  Lynette Cantrell, a talented musician who shares her mandolin music freely and joyfully in jams around the area, will celebrate on the 9th.  Sometimes Dean Upshaw’s birthday happens during the Skyline Picnic, but this year it will be on the following Tuesday the 13th of August.  All of you are recipients of Happy Birthday wishes from your Champion friends.  Steven Pinker’s birthday is September 18, 1954.  His latest book is “Enlightenment Now, The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.”  In 576 pages he explains that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide.  He is most encouraging and the reader is left with a conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing, though it seems contrary to the currents of human nature.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could use your help right now.  He is having an existential conflict.  Write to him:  Mitch McConnell, Russell Senate Office Building, 317 Delaware Ave NE, Washington, DC 20510.  He will really appreciate knowing how you feel about the important issues of the day.

Anyone who has a granddaughter can tell you that granddaughters are some of the world’s greatest treasures.  Some old Champions are adopting a 16 year old Swedish girl for their surrogate granddaughter.  Her name is Greta Thunberg.  She is a dynamic young lady, willing to speak truth to people who find the facts inconvenient.  She is on her way to New York to attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit.  She has been offered a ride on a sixty foot open-cockpit racing yacht to cross the wide Atlantic Ocean.  The trip will take two weeks.  She is traveling with her father and a film maker.  They will all be more than welcome in Champion should time and circumstances permit.  She will likely be a world leader in the years to come and her Champion want-to-be grandparents could not be more proud of her if she were blood kin.  Thank Heaven for Little Girls!  Many aging Champions and their neighbors are in the enviable position of having daughters living nearby.  Yes, there are many fine sons as well, who look in on the old folks and help out around the place, but daughters really seem to step up when things get tough.  Lucky is the family with daughters!  Even if they are not your daughters, feel free to acknowledge their good works with kind words when you see them supporting and encouraging their old folks.  Family Champions—Looking on the Bright Side!