May 4, 2015
CHAMPION—May the 4th be with you, 2015
By the time Bud Hutchison’s Spring Trail Ride bunch leaves out of Champion on Wednesday morning and gets back in the afternoon, the regular Wednesday Confab in the Meeting Room of the Historic Emporium will have assembled and dispersed after politely addressing history, current events, current events related to history, philosophy, agriculture and speculation on a wide range of subjects. The creak of saddle leather and aroma of horse liniment will herald the return of the adventurers. J.C. Owsley is planning to make the trip. Maybe he will be on that big borrowed white mule, Dot. His Champion friends are looking forward to the chance to visit for a spell out on the spacious veranda overlooking the monumental stump. Bud’s trail rides have been going on for a long time now. Perhaps this year someone will ask the questions about when they got started doing this and how long they figure they will be able to keep it up. No one will ask why.
You do not have to have had one to be one—that is to say, a good mother. Friday evening the appreciative children of an underappreciated child, now seventy, threw a lavish surprise party for their mother. Friends from all around the Ozarks gathered to celebrate the goodhearted, lovely woman who proves that difficult beginnings do not necessarily mandate an unhappy life. She was truly surprised and satisfied to sit at the table with a number of her children who acknowledge her as having nurtured and supported them unselfishly as they made their way into adulthood. It is said of mothers that they are only as happy as their least happy child. This is one of those excellent illustrations of children taking to heart the examples of the good every day behavior and attitude of the one who brought them into the world. Happy Birthday! Dovey Dooms was honored on the anniversary of her birth at the McClurg Jam. It started off with fiddles then voices joined in for that song punctuated with smiles and laughter. First grader, Gracie Nava, will have her birthday on the 7th. She will probably have as much fun as the McClurg folks. Skyline librarian Mrs. Sleep celebrates her birthday on the 8th. Her Skyline friends all send her their best wishes as she has been experiencing some poor health lately. Kindergarten student, Conner Jonas, has his birthday on the 12th. Kindergarten students are the perfect age for fun. Linda Heffern, of Waldo mostly and Champion sometimes, always celebrates her birthday on May 6th. Two of Champion Linda Cooley’s grandchildren have birthdays on the 7th and 12th. She knows who they are. Grandmothers are like that.
Mother’s Day is May 10th. A Champion writes to her daughter-in-law, “As your children are becoming adolescents, they have been with you for a quarter of your lifetime. Soon it will be half your life time and then most of it. I hope they always bring you joy. Happy Mother’s Day.” Some Champion mothers barely remember their lives before they had children and now that the children are gone from home it is all new. Champions who have lost their mothers, many years ago or just recently, can call to memory a sweet moment or a harsh one that came with a lesson. They were not all perfect—just people doing what they had been taught and doing the best they could under the circumstances. Mothers look back too, to the time when there was so much to be done and the little ones were under foot. How precious it would be to go back and let that laundry sit in the tub or the dishes in the sink, just to sit in the floor and play with the baby, maybe have a rousing game of peek-a-boo. The past cannot be changed, but the revisited memories can be selected carefully. Mothers and children can ponder what Mark Twain said: “Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”
It is fitting that the day of recognition of mothers should come in spring when new life is burgeoning all around. New beginnings smack of optimism. Gardens are being worked up and, optimistically, some down in low lying areas are acting like there will be no late frosts. Gardening is gambling and with good planning, hard work and luck it sometimes pays off. According to the Census Bureau twenty-five percent of Americans grow some of their own produce. Farming has changed over the years and now most of the cost of the food in the clean bright supermarkets has to do with distribution and transportation. Farmers do not realize much profit and a person wonders why they would go to the trouble while being grateful that they still do. Regulation and deregulation and political gobbledy-gook plays its part in food prices. Deceitful word games like “The Right to Farm” gives immunity from prosecution for factory farms that pollute the environment. Then, of course, there is the “Right to Work” bill which creates a difficult environment for private sector unions and makes it easier to utilize cheap foreign labor instead of having good paying jobs at home. Pension fund managers sought and got permission from Congress to make cuts in pensions if they are unable to balance the $4.00 outgoing of retirement benefits for every $1.00 coming in. California Congressman George Miller, a Democrat, and Representative John Kline of Minnesota, a Republican, drafted the proposal. Kline pushed to get it into the omnibus budget bill that Congress must pass to keep the government running —something that has never been done before. Then Congress says it has to cut pensions to save them. Politics! Esther Wrinkles was on the election board. She encouraged participation in the political process. She kept herself informed and was able to debate any issue with great civility. A Champion!
Esther’s coconut cream pie has come to the rescue again. Though she has been gone for some while now, her daughter-in-law honors Esther in this unique way—following her recipe. The pie was a big hit at the benefit auction for River Stillwood on Saturday evening. River’s planned adventures have been spoiled but the unplanned ones seem to be gratifying as friends and neighbors step up to help out after the Good Friday tornado did its damage. There were lots of baked goods and good natured competition for them as the community did what good communities do.
Come down to the wide, wild and wooly banks of Old Fox Creek for a chance to rest up from your hard farm labors. The atmosphere on the Square is sublime this time of the year and the convivial store-keeper will greet you with a smile. If you can yodel like Jimmy Rogers, the way Jerry Sanders does, stand out on the veranda and sing, “Mother the Queen of My Heart.” If you want to include the old man and you can sing like Lefty Frizzell, you might try “The Mom and Dad Waltz.” “In my heart joy tears start ‘cause I’m happy and I pray every day for mom and pappy and each night. I’d walk for miles, cry or smile for my mama and daddy. I want them to know I love them so.” Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!
