Champion News

CHAMPION—September 18, 2016

Clever Creek was wide and wild on Sunday!

        Birthdays are a big deal in Champion.  Dustin Johnson is a seventh grade student at Skyline School and has a birthday on September 25th.  That is on Sunday.  Monday will be a holiday for students, not because of Dustin’s birthday, but so the teachers can have a meeting that will help them be even more effective in their important work.  Louise Hutchison, who was no stranger to Skyline, and a couple of lovely Texas girls, granddaughter, Zoey Louise, and great niece, Penelope, share the 21st as their birthday, which is also just when summer ends.  “Searching for Booger County’s” Sandy Ray Chapin’s birthday is in the autumn.  He will be 70 on the 24th.  Graeme Laird over in Scotland was 42 in 2013 on September 26th.  Cathie Alsup Reilly celebrates on the 27th.  She is a Kentucky Wonder with close ties to Denlow and brightens up the place mightily on her too infrequent visits.   Magnate Becky Heston in Texas has her birthday on the 29th but was celebrating on the Full Moon at the COTA World Cup Enduro Races enjoying 180 mph Lamborghini, Porsche, Ferrari, and Audi.  “Oh! My!” she said.  Author, Wolf DeVoon, may celebrate on the 30th, if that is his real birthday.  Real or not, enjoy it all.  For you people it is just another birthday.  For the rest of us it is a celebration of when the world got you Champions.

Lannie Hinote’s smile is almost as big as her fish!

        From The Champion News September 18, 2006:  “Donald Krider is about to have a birthday.  He was born in 1927, but nobody seems to know how old he is.  He lives in Illinois and is the older brother of Vivian, Harley, and Lonnie.  He keeps busy, they say, playing bluegrass music and singing for the senior citizens in his home town.”  Donald and Rita were in Champion in the early spring.  He had a joke to tell about Eskimos who, he said, are God’s frozen people.  Friends will ask Lannie Hinote about that.  She is teaching again up in Mountain Village, Alaska.  She was home for the summer, but she is back in Alaska teaching and coaching volleyball and having great adventures.  Her friends and family know her to be a world traveler, a sports aficionada and an avid fisherwoman.  She has helped and inspired many people in this part of the world and is still at it.  Some of us are living vicariously through you, Lannie, but we are warmer.  Have fun.

        Champions are grateful for the rain, but last Wednesday the rain came so fast and hard that loafers out on the wide veranda at the Historic Emporium first thought it was hail.  “Hail?  No!” The General exclaimed as he stepped out into it to roll up his truck windows.  He strolled casually across the square, secured his windows and returned without having become wet.  It was a meteorological anomaly to defy experts, perhaps even to mystify favorite weather woman, Abbey Dyer.  The hopes of daydreamers have been dashed as the climate queen is now sporting a very sparkly ring on her left hand.  Fans were concerned earlier in the year when she had what appeared to have been a cast on that arm.  She has apparently recovered, but heartbroken hillbilly boys may not.  Alas!  Excuses were made and accepted for recent absences at the Wednesday confab.  It will be an exciting Wednesday coming up, particularly since the next day will be Thursday and the Wagon Train will be rolling through town.  They start their journey on Monday and hopes are that the big rains will be over before they get on the muddy trail.

        The happy birthday song came out for Elmer Banks at the Vanzant Jam on Thursday.  A card was passed around at the Champion store and someone said, “Hey! You made it another year, you ornery man!  Enjoy it all!”  A number of the regular musicians were at Starvy Creek enjoying the bluegrass festival there.  It will be interesting to hear their stories.  Hopefully the bad weather passed them by….and it is sure they had a wonderful time.  The Full Moon was all over them out in their camp ground….the Harvest Moon at that.  The General said there was going to be an eclipse as well.  He knows so much.

        The Water Protection folks out in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois are all making some progress toward getting the attention of the general public for the purpose of protecting the big aquafers from big oil and while they are at it, protecting the sovereignty of indigenous peoples.  As support builds for the movement from over a hundred Native American tribes, from First Nations around the world, and from organizations, cities, and businesses, it is exciting to see, even if it is difficult to see.  Television coverage has been minimal.  Journalists are being arrested along with activists.  One is kind of reminded of the 1970s.  People who grew up in this part of the world love their plentiful, natural, wild water and are aware that it is an exceptional resource.  It is one of the main reasons people have moved here from all over.  As oil becomes more scarce, it also becomes more dirty.  It is a fact of fracking, tar sands production, etc.  Even Mayflower, Arkansas, a quiet little town of 2,234 people, mostly white and Republican has not recovered or been compensated for the 2013 oil spill there.  It is a volatile issue.  Those four billion dollars dedicated to the pipeline by the Texans could as easily be spent on wind generators providing thousands of jobs for what old time ranchers called, “a good windmill man.”  It is all perspective.  We need gas in our rigs to drive down to Champion to meet up with the wagon train.  They will be there on Thursday early mid-day with all the perspective they bring.

        A Champion reported the other day that while he had been waiting in line for his sandwich at a restaurant in town, he met neighbors who introduced him to some of friends who happened to have just returned from a political rally in Springfield.  They had been whipped into frenzy and were looking for someone, anyone with opposing views that they could annihilate with their new found zeal.  At the hint that the Champion may have had a different viewpoint, they became belligerent and abusive.  It was embarrassing but mostly sad to be attacked by strangers.  There are fifty or so days to go before the National election.  Tolerance and respect for each other do not need to be lost in the race.  On November 9th we will all still be neighbors, and hopefully friends.  People can believe with equal fervor opposite things and still be civil to each other.

        Stories of tolerance, forbearance, compassion, heartbreak, romance and adventure are welcome at The Champion News, Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  Request the complete unabridged news there or find it in the Reading Room in Henson’s Downtown G & G on the North Side of the Square, or at www.championnews.us where there will be pictures of the West Plains Wagon Club when they come ambling into town on Thursday…about noon…just moseying on in…wagons swaying…leather squeaking…harness rattling…horses neighing…mules braying…gravel crunching under wheels.  “Rollin over prairie where there ain’t no grass/ Rollin over mountains where there ain’t no pass/ Sittin on a board, eyein the weather/ Prayin to the Lord we stay together/ Side by side on the Wagon Train.”  Friends and neighbors will be there to greet them.  Welcome to Champion!  Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—September 12, 2016

From high atop Mt. Champion the Champion School Reunion spread out on the old school grounds.

        As promised, The Champion School Reunion was a great affair.  Last year there had been eighteen students in attendance.  This year there were twenty eight students.  Students and all, there were almost sixty people young and old milling about under the bee tree that used to be first base.  Hoovie made the whole “Walk of Ages” from Cold Springs to Champion (starting an hour early), and Royce and party made a fine showing of walking the greatest part of the hilly trek to arrive at the great gathering which was replete  with food, fellowship, reminiscences, reconnections, revelations, a few melodies and optimism for another a year hence.  Some of these folks represent 90 years of optimism.  Carry on!  The bee tree seemed vacant during the reunion, but by the following Sunday there were several bee sightings.  Reunions and renewals are Champion.  Bonnie Mullins said that she and Pete made their trip to Missouri for the Brixey reunion.  They had a beautiful day though they missed many who could not come, but the cooking was good with “Ed’s good fish, chicken, fries and hush puppies and Kaye Johnston’s good peach cobbler.”  She thanked Sonja, Ed, Zack and Allison Williams for hosting.

        The turnout for the benefit at Vanzant for Shirley (Coffman) Driskell was remarkable.  Had not a nickel been raised, the outpouring of support and affection for the lady would have been inspiring.  It would seem that quite a few nickels were raised in addition to spirits and hopefully enough to be of significant support during a difficult time for a much appreciated neighbor.

        Champion Birthdays to celebrate are Tanna Krider Wiseman on the13th of September, Frances Sutherland and Konrad Zappler on the 14th.  Elmer Banks on the 15th and that will be a significant amount of celebrating.  It has probably already started and will go on for some while.  Stay tuned.  Grandparents Day at Skyline School on Friday was a great success.  Grandparents arrived at the school at 1:30 and enjoyed an afternoon with some of their favorite young people in their lovely little rural school.  The youngsters had a fine music program to share with some of their favorite old people.  Everyone left smiling.

        Sometime things work out for the best or at least work out.  It was reported in The Champion News on June 8, 2015, via a letter from Ms. Aynne Thrope concerning the “continuing genocide of indigenous peoples”.  She was appalled that Apache holy land might have been given away by Congress to a mining company owned by Australia and Britain which would have,  had they had been able to get their hands on it, made an open pit, thousand foot deep mine.  The National Park Service under Presidential leadership has recently made a strong statement with defense of Apache religion and the environment and blocked the sale.  Perspective is a gift.  The source of this good news is the internet and so it may just be a piece of wishful thinking.  It is hard to imagine that any politician could arrange a shady deal to plunder a Christian or Jewish religious site, but maybe it is different with indigenous people.  Maybe it is true that the sale has been blocked.  The Standing Rock water protectors have finally made a little mainstream media news.  That is good.  We progress.  Champion!  “What is needed now, more than ever, is leadership that steers us away from fear and fosters greater confidence in the inherent goodness and ingenuity of humanity.”  Those are the words of a living former President.  The views expressed here are the author’s alone and are presented to offer a variety of perspective.

        “Rolling, rolling, rolling!  Keep them wagons rolling, Rawhide!”  That song may be a little mixed up, (“though the streams are swollen, keep them doggies rolling”) but the West Plains Wagon Club and the Arkansas Gee Haw outfit are sure to roll into Champion just shy of noon on the 22nd.  They welcome visitors and gawkers.  The General has pledged to help with a musical rendition of “Mule Train” if it would be deemed appropriate and would not spook the livestock.  The committee is out on that.

        The committee conducted an examination of the mayoral entity on the wide veranda of the Historic Emporium on Labor Day to determine the suitability of his continued service.  While it is true that he mostly failed the test, it is also true that there is no big line of folks ready to take on the awesome responsibilities of the position with all its glamor and high profile.  The nature of the quiz was such that the official was clearly given a hint as to what is expected during the coming year.  Improvement is always welcome.

        If you have ideas for improvement, news, histories, stories, observations, corrections or suggestions, email them to champion@championnews.us or snail mail them to TCN, Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  Recently, Suzie Freeman (a hillbilly at heart, living down in McKinney, TX) sent pictures of the Brushy Knob School, grades 1-8, in 1950 and another of the school in 1910, when it seemed to have been a much larger institution.  Examine those pictures down at Henson’s Grocery and Gas on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  The school looked to be a nice brick building.  It will be interesting to know if anyone can locate the site now.  While attendance was down at last Wednesday’s Salon in the meeting room at the Historic Emporium, it was still most pleasant.  Explanations for absenteeism will be weighed next time.  Though the Starvy Creek Bluegrass Festival and the Hootin and Hollerin doings might have an effect on the attendance at the Thursday night Vanzant jam, it is still likely to be a good time with pot luck at six and music thereafter until nine.

        As the anniversary of the September 11th attacks has passed and the acknowledgement of those nearly three thousand lives lost that day, it merits acknowledgement that 6,828 American soldiers have perished in Iraq and Afghanistan since then.  There are a million American Veterans who have been wounded.  The entire region there is in shambles now and the whole world is less safe than it once was.  Laying blame does not repair anything.  Learning who profits from this kind of horrible conflagration might be a step in the direction that leads to peace.  “There will be Peace in the Valley for me someday.  There will be Peace in the Valley for me, Oh! Lord I pray.  There’ll be no sadness, no sorrow, no trouble for me”…in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—September 2, 2016

Champion School Reunion 2015 Seated left to right: Wayne Sutherland, Vivian Krider Floyd, Irene Keller Dooms, Royce Henson, Ethel Luellen Anderson, Elsie Hick Curtis.  Standing left to right: Jerry Smith, Benton Hutchison, Frances Cooley Sutherland, Kenneth Henson, J.R. Johnston, Doug Hutchison, Eva Lois Henson Phillips, Wes Lambert, Modeen Dooms McGowan, Alvie Dooms, Elvie Hancock Ragland and Darrell Hutchison.

        All you great appreciators of Champion and all things Champion, you will have to wait a week for reports of the Champion School Reunion.  Always on the Saturday before Labor Day, it is shaping up to be another sterling event, Hoovey Henson made a surprise appearance at the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam on Thursday and allows that he will be making the ‘Walk of Ages’ starting at Cold Springs at nine on Saturday morning.  There will be support vehicles with water and he said that Royce would be in a rocking chair on the back of a pick-up.  Hoovey may be making that up.  Pete Proctor, according to The General, wants to join the parade (or amble), but Pete reports having trouble with a knee.  It is figured that the Henson Party will carry on and just meet up with Pete at the dinner table.  Hopes are that someone has filled them in on the precarious situation at the second low water crossing.  Ah!  They are tough, resourceful folks.  They will make it.  Stay tuned.  These community gatherings are part of what makes this a great place to live and worth a long walk to get there.

        There may be several birthdays celebrated at the reunion on Saturday.  Betty Thomas, Larry Wrinkles, and Wilma Hutchison all mark September first as their birth anniversary.  Phoebe Johnston Ward celebrates on the third and her Uncle Vernon and her cousin Dailey Upshaw celebrate on the fourth.  Perhaps someone will organize a happy birthday song for them on Saturday.  Music on the wide veranda a couple of Wednesdays ago was responsible for causing a couple of Champion farmers to shirk their chores for a few minutes as guitars were passed around.  “Oh, I haven’t played in ten years,” says one who then proceeds to play the daylights out of a borrowed guitar, and a mandolin and a banjo.  It is amazing how many people in this part of the world ‘used to play’ and how much they still remember.  Someone quoted a recent article in the AARP magazine that touts music as a great healer, a comforter, an analgesic, and a mental stimulator that helps stave off dementia.  Not everyone is old enough to get that magazine, of course, but they take the word of their elders that the article seems to be well researched and factual.

        As Hoovey and party take their stroll down Cold Springs Road to the south on Saturday they will likely be traveling down the middle of the road so as to avoid the poison ivy and other lush growth along the edges.  The Jewel Weed will be blooming big time at the spring crossings and along the creek where it stays wet.  The Teeter Creek Herb folks had a good facebook article about Skullcap last week.  It is a member of the mint family and was used to treat nervous disorders.  The article says that large stemmed varieties of Skullcap are sometimes gathered for the market and reports that for a long time Germander, a plant with liver toxins, was gathered and sold as Skullcap.  There is “…a good case for knowing and trusting your source of herbs, and the admitted importance of some of the guidelines now in place to regulate the identification and quality of herbs in the industry.”  Bob Liebert, founder of Teeter Creek Herbs, will give a talk on Medicinal and Edible Herbs, with a focus on Ozark regional herbs and herb lore, at the Springfield, Mo. Nature Center (4601 Nature Center Way) on Tuesday September 13th, with one class at 5 PM and another at 6:30 the same evening.  They will be getting out around the Nature Center grounds for some plant viewing.  They do require you to call in and register.  Liebert says, “Call earlier rather than later—417-883-4237.”

Dot

        The West Plains Wagon Club and the Gee and Haw folks from Arkansas will be making their trek through Champion on September 22nd this year.  They start out of a Monday in West Plains and by Friday are a hundred miles down the road in Mansfield.  From there they go different ways.  Some go home and some just keep going.  They generally arrive in Champion on Thursday just shy of noon and rest up for an hour or so before heading north up Cold Springs Road.  They are pleased to be met by the community and are willing to have their interesting rigs and beautiful animals inspected.  The wagon train is an annual reminder to folks along the trail that our past is full of competent, thoughtful, hardworking, inventive people full of curiosity and determination.  “There’s some cotton, thread and needles/for the folks a way out yonder/a shovel for a miner/who left his home to wander/some rheumatism pills/for the settlers in the hills/ Git along mule, git along.”  J.C. Owsley, a Champion friend from over at Jordan aspires to see the wagon train and might join up with it east of Champion and escort it a way.  He is always a welcome site.  Maybe he will be on a black gelding, a good “old man’s” horse or on a flashy pait that is a road eating traveler.  He recently said, “An old friend of mine once raffled off a dead horse and I asked him if it made anyone mad.  He said, ‘only the guy who won so I just gave him back his money.’”  J.C. was here a while back on a big white mule, Dot.  They cut quite a figure.

        Figure Dale and Betty Thomas will be at the Champion School Reunion.  It will not be long before their Pioneer Descendants’ Gathering over on Bryant Creek at the Edge of the World.  Yates is the place.  That will be Saturday and Sunday the 1st and 2nd of October.  There is rumor that this may be the last one of these beautiful events.  It is chance to become immersed for a while in that recent but historic past of just a few generations ago.  Times may have been simpler then, but the work was definitely harder.  There may have been less time for mischief.  Of course, mischief makers always find the time.  Not mischief makers, but doers of good works are Debbie Stone (679-3845) and Debbie Shannon (948-2116)  who are putting together a benefit for Sharon (Coffman) Driskell at the Vanzant Community Building on Saturday the 10th of September, starting at 6:00 p.m. with dinner, music and an auction at 7:00.  It will be a great time for a great cause.  The purpose of the benefit is to help with travel expenses for cancer treatment in Texas.  If you cannot make it to the benefit but would like to help out with a donation use this address:  Brenda Coffman Massey, HC 73 box 185b Drury, Mo 65638.  Good works.

        More good works come In a letter of support to the brave indigenous environmental defenders at Standing Rock from neighbors to the south in Ecuador:  “Dear Brothers and Sisters in the North, We send you a fraternal greeting of solidarity for all that you are living and experiencing as a result of the exploitation of the extractive industries on your territories, especially to our Sioux allies who are defending the Missouri River.  We identify with your struggle to keep it in the ground in defense of Mother Earth and all creation.  From the Amazon, we stand with you as Indigenous Peoples, as guardians of our living forests and planet. Patricia Gualinga. Leader of the Kichwa Indigenous People of Sarayaku”  In a tumultuous world it is good to know that good works are universal and areespecially good in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—August 29, 2016

A tidy little Champion garden on a tranquil summer Sunday.

        Many long years ago Sylvia Henson, who lived up on Cold Springs Road, wrote the “Champion Items.”  Later on, Ruth Hicks, who lived in the next place to the south, wrote them.  Then, Esther Wrinkles, who at that time lived just across the road from the Champion Store, wrote them.  Esther moved over to Vanzant and wrote for those folks for a while.  This permutation of the Items, “The Champion News “ (TCN), is being written in the same room where Sylvia Henson began her correspondence.  It is complete with its own website where every article from the past ten years is posted together with pictures and special features.  www.championnews.us can now be read on your smart phone.  Times are changing.  From the first edition, August 28, 2006:  “News has reached the Champion community that its former longtime resident, Mrs. Clifford Wrinkles, has suffered a mishap that has resulted in a plaster cast on her foot together with admonitions to stay off the foot for two weeks.  This will work a hardship on Mrs. Wrinkles who is routinely more active than most.”  Over the years Esther’s name has come up frequently.  Look up the July 29, 2007 posting to read a good conversation with the lady.  She wrote for The Douglas County Herald for more than 50 years and was a founding member of the Skyline Volunteer Fire Department.  Her enthusiasm for the vital little organization never waned.  She would say to every volunteer on the fire line or behind the scenes today, that your efforts are genuinely appreciated.  She would acknowledge, as we do, that not everyone can participate as fully as she did, that we are all just doing the best we can to carry on her good work.

        Several of Sylvia’s children and grandchildren are expected to be at the 33rd Champion School Reunion on Saturday, September 3rd.  They will come from Springfield, Texas, and Arkansas to meet up with old school chums and friends for a day of visiting and reminiscing.  There will be a pot luck luncheon ‘on the grounds’ and perhaps some music this year.  A plan has been hatched to get Charlie Lambert to come with Zelda and his mandolin, hoping to entice other local musicians to show up for the fun.  Perhaps Charlie’s granddaughter, Hannah Janson, who likes to go with him everywhere, will come.  She and her friend, Chloe Hart, had a good time at the Skyline Picnic and were kind enough to provide a song for the cake walk when the last cake was up for grabs.  There were 18 alumni present at the last reunion.  See their picture at www.championnews.us where there are also pictures from previous reunions and samplings of the music.  These reunions tie the past to the present for the community and illustrate the importance of the friendships forged in childhood.  A Prominent Champion wrote in the preface to his book “Champion School Memories” published in 1985, that in the previous year several people had commented that their school days were “some of the happiest times of their lives.”  He went on to say that they probably did not realize it at the time because times were rough.  Champions today are recognizing good times as they happen.

        The hummingbirds are getting ready for their trip to the south.  They have kept some old Champions busy all summer making ‘hummer-goo’ and the sugar bill is approaching $20.00 for the year, still fairly economical entertainment.  The year is going by quickly, as they all seem to for people of a certain age.  Seneca Parsons may have been surprised that he is already 37 years old as of the 26th, the same day that Rita Krider might have been amazed that 81 years have passed since she arrived on the scene.  Laine Sutherland will have celebrated her birthday on the 30th with music at McClurg the night before.  Kalyssa Wiseman, Jenna Brixey and Ray Hurt all have birthdays on August 31st.  Kalyssa lives up in Marshfield, but is often in Champion visiting with her Grandmother.  She and Jenna are the same age.  Jenna and Ray go to Skyline School, where Jenna is in the 3rd grade and Ray is entering kindergarten.  Bonnie Brixey Mullens wrote, “Sixty years ago today (August 29th) at 6:05 p.m. I gave birth to my 1st child and only son, 6 lb. 2 oz. Gregory Russell Mullens.  Happy Birthday Greg!  Love you.”  Champions say, “Happy birthday, Young and Old!  Enjoy every day.”

        Brenda Coffman Massey was busy at the Skyline Picnic grilling burgers and helping her neighbors the way she always does.  She is very active in the Vanzant/Drury community and can be seen out supporting every good cause in the area.  Debbie Stone (679-3845) and Debbie Shannon (948-2116) are putting together a benefit for Brenda’s sister, Sharon (Coffman) Driskell, sister also of Beverly Emory, at the Vanzant Community Building on Saturday the 10th of September.  Watch for ads in the local newspapers.  The purpose of the benefit is to help with travel expenses for cancer treatment in Texas.  If you cannot make it to the benefit but would like to help out with a donation use this address:  Brenda Coffman Massey, Hc 73 box 185b Drury, Mo 65638.  Neighbors helping neighbors is some of the best part of living in this part of the world.

        Ask any writer what he thinks of any editor and the answer might vary from article to article.  It has always been pleasant dealing with Mindy Johnson at the Douglas County Herald.  Friends in Champion learn she has been ill lately and send her best wishes for a good recovery.  She did not edit the very first article by this writer that had the quote by Matthew Henry removed.  That quote was, “If truth is once deserted, unity and peace will not last long.”  It was a surprise to be edited.  The most recent edit (last week by The Herald–probably just for space) concerned reporting of the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline protest going on up at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.  There is no national news organization bringing the situation to the attention of the general public.  Thousands of people from across the United States and Canada have gathered to stop a 1,170 mile pipeline from being pushed through tribal lands, ancient burial sites and sacred ground, through fragile watersheds, crossing under the Missouri River, over four states.  This is an example of eminent domain for private gain.  A few months ago when the Bundy family had occupied some park land out west, the media coverage was everywhere.  They are now aggressively ignoring an event that is being compared to the most recent Wounded Knee incident.  That one lasted from February 27, 1973 to May 8, 1973.  The current protest has been going on for more than a year and is gaining strength.  Perhaps the news blindness is because the mass media in general, broadcast and print, is owned by a very few corporations which (not ‘who’) have vested interest in oil one way or another.  There is also the consideration that we, as a Nation, are so accustomed to ignoring the Government’s historic abuse of the Native People (as it has broken every single treaty) that we are deaf to the reality of their current suffering.  We are accustomed to seeing Indians chased across our movie screens and we get to somehow pretend that all of those bad things happened long ago.  The Wounded Knee Massacre happened on December 29, 1890.  Many of us are proud that we can trace our families back long before that time—some right here in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—August 22, 2016

Wes Lambert says this hood is probably off a 1947 Chevrolet.

        When the weather turns from hot to perfect, as it just has these lovely days, some Champions take a little while to catch up…catch up with the yard work, and with the whole idea that summer is almost over.  Most likely there will be more hot days ahead, but the temporary reprieve from the oppressive heat and humidity is a gift that will make it more bearable as the season winds down.  Naturally, no one has had the heart to complain when neighbors just to the south and east are floating away, stranded, and bereft.

        Tuesday the 30th will be the last Tuesday of the month and therefore the day that Nannette Hirsch, the Douglas County Health Department Nurse will be in Champion from 9 in the morning until 11.  She does blood pressure checks and other health screenings as an amenity to the rural community.  This program has saved lives.  The following Tuesday will find her at Skyline School from 8:30 to 10:30 in the morning doing the same thing.  She helps us look after ourselves.  What a sterling service.

         Labor Day is on the way and that means the Champion School Reunion will again have the Square full of students and their families and friends celebrating the institute that figures so vividly in their childhood memories.  It has been sixty years since it was merged with the other local schools into Skyline.  The reunion has been going on for well over thirty years now.  It happens on the Saturday before Labor Day and anyone with an interest in the school is welcome.  There is a pot luck lunch and ample opportunity to visit with seldom seen friends.

        A sojourner relaxing on the wide veranda at the Historic Emporium might look over at the big oak tree that bears the sign, “Lonnie Krider Memorial Drive” and will notice the hood of an ancient car leaning up against the tree.  Larry Wrinkles, enjoying an ice cream out on the veranda the other day, said that it was the hood off the car that Ed and Anna Henson were driving when Bob Shull ran into them.  It happened up on the dirt road, now named for a much loved native son, in front of Manfred Smith’s house.  Ed and Anna were both badly hurt, but both declined a trip to the hospital.  They recovered with time and Larry said that for a long time the old car sat over on the creek bank.  Bob Shull lived down the road east on the other side of Fox Creek.  He was reported to have been an excellent welder and a week end tippler of some distinction.  Maybe Larry will attend the Champion School Reunion and share some of those stories about how Arthur Porter kept Punk in line for a couple of years.

        Just back from vacation, a regular visitor to Champion had pictures to show and tales to tell about being out west.  The vacationers inspected Mt. Rushmore and other scenic places, enjoying the natural spectacles and each other’s fine company.  Their stay in the Black Hills coincided with the 76 annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.  The folks at Wikipedia say that the highest attendance for this rally was in 2015, when there were 739,000 people there.   There may not have been as many this year, but there were enough to have traffic so chaotic that our Champions beat a hasty retreat.  They missed getting to see the Crazy Horse Monument which has been under construction since 1948, and has a way to go before it will be completed.  It was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, an Oglala Lakota chief and well-known statesman who wanted the real patriot of the Sioux tribe to be honored along with Washington and Lincoln.  Some Oglala Lakota object to the carving of the sacred Thunderhead Mountain and say that Crazy Horse would not have approved.  Standing Bear spoke with anger of the broken Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) in which the President promised the Black Hills would belong to the Indians forever.  Imagine how he would have felt about the Bakken pipeline.  Many Oglala have traveled up to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota to join in the protest of the 1,134-mile long underground oil pipeline project for crude oil that would run from the Bakken oil fields in Northwest North Dakota, through South Dakota, Iowa and end in Patoka, Illinois.  Pipeline opponents say the project would disturb sacred sites and could affect drinking water on the reservation and for people downstream.  Again, however, if there is money to be made, somehow the rights of the native people and the promises of the Nation become nebulous.

        Eli and Emerson Rose Oglesby sang ‘Happy Birthday!’ to their mother, Tianna Krider Oglesby, on August 22nd, also the birthday of Skyline School’s custodian, Mrs. Stephanie.  Drayson Cline shares his birthday with Skyline’s second grade teacher, Mrs. Willhite.  Drayson’s Mom taught at Skyline before he came along three years ago.  His cousin, Dakota Watts, who lives over in Tennessee, celebrates his birthday on the 24th.  He will be 23 this year.  He is studying to get his pilot’s license, which makes his grandmother proud and nervous at the same time.  Daniel Cohen teaches literature to middle school and high school students in a little school about the size of Skyline up in Stroudsburg, PA.  His birthday is also on the 24th.  Skyline 4th grade student, Dana Harden, and Barbara Krider, of Elmwood, IL, have the 25th as their birthday.  Rita Krider, Barbara’s sister-in-law, also lives up in the Elmwood area.  Her party will be on the26th.  Champion, Wes Smith, and Springfield’s Jody Henson will party in different places together on the 29th.  That is also the special day for Rowdy Woods.  He is a 5th grade student at Skyline and was a big help getting ready for the Skyline VFD picnic this year.  Happy Birthday to all you folks near and far–remember you have to keep having birthdays if you want to get old, which many old people say is a good thing.

        The old bees have moved out of the Behemoth Bee Tree on the South Side of the Square.  They had overpopulated again and the elders have taken off in a swarm.  It is a natural occurrence that happens a time or two every year.  There will be a great roaring and a v-shaped group will transport a queen with them and hover somewhere for a while before dispersing to a new home.  It is an excellent time for bee keepers to capture them, though this time the swarm had disappeared before the local bee wranglers arrived.  Young bees take over the hive and the process begins all over again.  Bees are our very best pollinators and gardeners enjoying a bountiful harvest have them to thank.  “Oh, the buzzin’ of the bees in the peppermint trees/ ‘Round the soda water fountains/ Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings/ In the Big Rock Candy Mountains” of Champion—Looking on the Bright Side.

CHAMPION—August 15, 2016

Saturday at the Picnic was like a big Birthday party for Dean Upshaw!

        The Skyline Volunteer Picnic was another rousing success.  It started out Friday with a dramatic little downpour.  The rain did not last long and the temperature dropped dramatically.  Turnout was modest that night but the fun was plentiful.  Saturday saw the great gathering of friends and neighbors enjoying themselves and each other amid perfect weather conditions.  They opened their pocketbooks and their hearts in support of the great little Volunteer fire department that serves the community so well.  After all the games, the excellent picnic food, the wonderful music, and the exciting door prizes came the drawing for the quilt/display chest and quilt.  Pete Proctor was the big winner!  Pete does all kinds of good work for Veterans in the area as well as other civic chores and it is nice to see something good happen for him.  The whole evening was like a big birthday party for Dean Upshaw and when it was all over and everyone was home safe in their beds, the rain came again, gently.  Some of the volunteers who work so hard to get the event together worked hard the next day to get things broken down and stored away for next year.  Other volunteers, not used to so much exertion, slept the rainy morning away.  The thirtieth Skyline Picnic now is just a pleasant memory.

        Betty Thomas was at the picnic showing some sensational pictures of the bear that visited their place the other day.  She glanced out the window in time to see the critter walking through her yard.  Dale said Betty roused him up from a good nap in his recliner to let him know the bear was there.  The animal stood up with front feet on top of a refrigerator they keep on their patio and appeared to be over six feet tall.  Eventually it went on its way, but not before Betty snapped the photos she had on hand.  She also had flyers for the next Pioneer Descendants Gathering and pictures of the beautiful quilt she has made for their annual raffle.  This quilt has a horse theme and will be a prize for anyone, particularly equestrians.  There is a rumor that this will be the last of the Pioneer Gatherings so it will doubtlessly be an enormous affair and not one to be missed.  Dr. Suess said, “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”  Champions always try to be aware of the good moment and are looking forward to another trip over the Edge of the World.

        “I’m as mean as a peach orchard boar!” barked the yodeling fiddler after an unsuccessful attempt to run The General down with his car.  The General performed a series of theatrical stumblings and hat throwings as passengers poured out of the car ready to join the fray.  Much lively banter revealed it all to have been in good fun.  Good fun ensued with another evening of enjoyable music at the Vanzant Thursday Bluegrass Jam.  The internet informs now that doctors are prescribing music therapy for heart ailments, brain dysfunction, learning disabilities, depression, PTSD, Alzheimer’s, childhood development and other things.  Good food, fellowship and music sounds like a prescription for a Champion.  This term ‘mean as a peach orchard boar’ does bear a little study as to the origin of such a declaration.  Anyone who can come up with a good story will be a Champion huckleberry.

What is it?

        Interesting people bring interesting things to Champion looking for answers.  The most recent such occurrence was on Wednesday when Bert Lehman brought in an item that had come to him incidentally in a box of things he had bought at an auction.  It is a steel cylinder about an inch and a half in diameter and perhaps a foot long.  One end has a ring going through it.  The other end has a hook that when pulled exposes itself to be on the end of a screw that is concealed within the cylinder.  A local engineer opines that it must be a turning device—the hook matching a fitting eye attached to a similar screw, perhaps for opening a transom window or who knows?  Find a picture on The Champion News Facebook page and on the website at www.championnews.us and share your knowledge or speculation.  The last item brought for this kind of inspection and identification turned out to be a hay needle.  Several people had seen something like it or had experience using it.  A story was told on Wednesday about a man who used to live down by Gainesville who now lives maybe over by Rolla.  He had an elk ranch and one day he looked out to see a man riding by on a black horse with a yellow, three legged dog following along.  The rancher discovered subsequently that three of the yearling elk that had been sleeping in a pile had suffocated.  He would like to have talked with the man on the black horse to find out if he knew anything about that incident, but he was already gone three legged dog and all.

Sharon Tate Williamson with Ed Henson.”

        Jewell Hall Elliot shared a video that Rose Zella Myer had made available on Facebook.  It was made at a square dance in Ava on April 24, 1997.  J. R. and Janet Johnston were in the group, along with Sue Potts, Edna Mae Davis, Joe Englehart, and perhaps Max Decker.  Jewell was not sure about that.  The caller of the dance was Edna Mae Davis and the band was made up of Bob Holt, Charlie Walden on fiddle and Alvie Dooms on guitar.  It looked like everyone was having a good time.  Sharon Tate Williamson posted a picture of herself and Ed Henson sitting on the porch at the Champion Store…She did not know what year it was but her friend Sherri Tate Unger commented on how dark her hair was in the photo to which Ms. Williamson responded, “I didn’t notice.”

        August 10, 1821, marked the day that Missouri was granted statehood.  Details of the Missouri Compromise only 195 years ago show us how far, as a Nation, we have come.  On August 14, 1935, Social Security was signed into law by President Roosevelt, pulling millions of American seniors out of poverty.  There is a movement under way to privatize Social Security with arguments that include the specious notion that it is an ‘entitlement’ that somehow adds to the deficit, when, in fact, it is self- sustaining and would be solvent perpetually if the taxable earnings cap were lifted.  Likewise, the socialist organization called the United States Postal Service is self–sustaining and would be perpetually had not Congress decided a while back that retirement and health-care funds be set aside to cover employees for the next 75 years.  This was a ploy to bankrupt the service so as to justify its privatization.  Congress has also chosen to, at the last minute, slip into a must-pass military spending bill a provision that hands over the title to Oak Flat, an ancient Apache holy place, to Resolution Copper Mining, an Australian owned company which plans to open a crater two miles wide and 1,000 feet deep across the holy site.  The Society for American Archaeology says there is abundant evidence that the Apache have been there “since well before recorded history.”  If Oak Flat were a Christian holy site, no senator who wished to remain in office would dare to sneak a backdoor deal for its destruction into a spending bill, no matter what mining company profits or jobs might result or how many campaign contributions and lobbyist dollars were involved.  But this is Indian religion.  Clearly the Arizona congressional delegation is not afraid of a couple of million conquered natives.  This protected land is under siege as is democracy.  If you do not like the way things have gone for the past few years, look to your elected Congress.  The results of the three months of political turmoil ahead will shape the immediate and long-term course of the Nation.  While it has been a welcome relief to have the Olympic Games temporarily divert attention from politics, giving us the illusion of unity again, the struggle is far from over.

        People in Louisiana and in other parts of the country are not thinking about politics or the Olympics.  Extreme flooding has obliterated communities, taking lives and washing away the life’s work and future hopes of many thousands of people.  The extreme heat in the north east is killing people.  Those of us so far unaffected extend sympathy to them and gratitude for our own relatively good circumstances.  “Count your many blessings.  Name them one by one.”  Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—August 8, 2016

        Champions are getting excited about the Skyline Picnic to be held on Friday and Saturday.  (See details in the newspaper ad.)  Their grocery shopping lists include ingredients for pies and cakes to donate for the concession stand and for the cake walk.  It will be another chance to meet up with family and friends for an evening of fun.  This year Champion’s prominent artisan has donated a quilt/display chest.  It is 24″ high, 29″ wide and 18″ deep.  It is a beautiful piece of work with glass sides and front to show off those prize possessions.  The drawing will be held on Saturday night.  Last year Sally Prock won the drawing for the quilt called “Broken Dishes.”  It was put together with hundreds of tiny pieces and quilted in a style called ‘stippling.’  Sally was happy and the community was happy for her because she is always out supporting every good cause in the area.  This picnic supports the Skyline Volunteer Fire Department.  The firefighters are all volunteers who are trained as first responders to aid in emergencies of all kinds in addition to fighting fires.  Proceeds from the picnic go toward equipment and training for these folks who are willing to put themselves at risk to protect the lives and property of their neighbors.  Champions!

        Caleb Harden, Jaycee Hall and Cryslynn Bradshaw are all first grade students at Skyline School and they all have birthdays in August.  Caleb’s birthday is on the 5th, Jaycee’s on the 10th and Cryslynn’s on the 12th.  Their birthday celebrations will be over before school starts on the 17th.  The school will have an open house from 5:30 – 7:00 in the evening of the 15th to give the community a chance to get to know the teachers, the parents, and the students.  Everyone is welcome.  Foster and Kalyssa, Champion grandchildren living over in Marshfield, will have helped their Dad count his candles.  He was born August 8, 1968, so that is quite a few candles.  Champion friends wish you all a Happy Birthday.

        Boy Howdy and the Howdy Boys, featuring Rattlesnake Slim and Frankie Midnight, the Wonder Dog, provided almost a week of entertainment for folks up in Near Champion North.  The band pulled in Tuesday and departed Sunday.  In their wake, the house seems big and quiet.  The days passed with no television—no news, no politics.  It was a lovely time of pleasant conversation, storytelling, help with farm projects, great meals and music, music, music.  These world travelers continued their tour on to North Carolina where it is sure they will be well received.  Meanwhile, back in Champion, plugged back in now and turned back on, it is exciting to see young people from all over the world striving to be the best in the world at their Olympic sport.  The Olympic Games remind us that we live in a small world and people have more in common with each other than they do differences.  It is a cause for optimism to see that spirit of friendship and cooperation.

        It was great to see Ruth Collins back at the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam with her velvety voice and sweet smile.  Dwight is sporting his new titanium hip and is getting around nicely already with just a cane.  The big circle of musicians included Montana Banjo with his lightening fingers and a guitar wielding high lonesome singer wringing hearts with, “Why did I leave my plow in the field and look for a job in the town?”  Festus had another humorous ditty.  Jerry obliged requests to yodel.  Roberta wished someone “Many Happy Hangovers.”  Visiting Texans wowed the house with eastern European music from Bulgaria, Greece and Macedonia.  The time flew by and already folks are looking forward to next Thursday.  Pot luck at 6 p.m. and good music until 9 makes a nice evenning.

        “If voting mattered, they wouldn’t let us do it,” according to Mark Twain.  He was born in 1835, and died in 1910.  He was a keen observer of the human condition.  His observation, made sometime well over a hundred years ago, may have been a cynical response to a disappointing election.  A candidate who, in the recent election, won by a narrow margin was heard to say, “Don’t ever let anyone tell you that your vote doesn’t matter!”  One hundred thirty seven people who voted for the Skyline School Tax Levy are disappointed.  Those voting against the proposal numbered 201.  In the previous election, the proposal was defeated by mere 3 (or maybe 6) votes.  Once again, the resourcefulness and dedication of the school board, the staff and the school community will be called on to keep our valuable little rural school viable with minimal resources.  Their efforts are to be commended.

        The weather is volatile all over the world these days.  There has been flooding in places that have never seen it before here in the United States and across the world.  Strong winds and heavy rain have wreaked havoc in many places.  Damage from recent storms has been cleaned up nicely on the Square in Historic Downtown Champion and locals are grateful for the relatively minor nature of it.  Marge and Doug are home again from their summer in the mountains and may have some stories to share about nature at higher elevations.  When they first located to this area they spent some time searching for it and now that they know where the Square is (at the bottom of several hills, near the confluence of a couple of creeks, where country roads meet the pavement), they may well be enjoying the placid view of the wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek and of the Behemoth Bee Tree from the wide veranda of the Famed Emporium.  On Friday and Saturday nights, on your way home from the picnic, pull over at some scenic overlook and gaze at the heavens for a while.  If the sky is clear you are sure to be rewarded by the Perseids Meteor Shower and the sight of many fireballs streaking across the sky, but “don’t let the stars get in your eyes.  Don’t let the moon break your heart.  Love blooms at night…” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!