Champion News

                 While farmers and merchants, truck drivers, mail carriers, health care professionals and others doing important and necessary work continued doing what needed to be done, some Old Champions were hold up warm and cozy during the week of extreme weather. They watched old movies and opened boxes of forgotten memorabilia, worked on unfinished projects, started new projects, wrote letters and did a lot of cooking and eating. Lucky are those snowbound with people they like. The days seem t pass slowly. When you live way out in the country, you can turn the music up as loud as you want. While inconvenient, the days were not unpleasant.
The rising temperatures are raising spirits. Sunday in the 60s found adventurers out on their side-by-sides, buggies and four-wheelers exploring beautiful country lanes, muddy already but not nearly as muddy as the will be when the thaw is complete. Dee mud stories of old will likely be told again around the old wood stove as rain is expected on Wednesday. Back in the late 1970s a county gravel truck was mired down on Cold Springs Road in the aftermath of a Valentines’ Day party just after a thaw from a deep snow and a little rain. The truck was said to have just wallowed over on its side.
               Saturday, March 1st, Sue’s Greenhouse will open for the spring season. It is a warming notion. She has been working since December getting everything ready. She has her seeds ready and has added some additional herb seeds to her stock. In a couple of weeks, she will have berry bushes and perhaps some fruit trees. A stroll through the greenhouse is aromatherapy and frequently the chance to visit with friends who are there for the same reason.
Edie, over at L and E Organic Farm has also started lots of seedlings and has enormous leaves of her Indian Green Malbar spinach already providing wonderful salads for herself and her handsome honey, Lee. Edie is an herbalist who makes natural remedies and a wonderful tonic called Super Power. Lee is a beekeeper producing Lee’s Bees’ Honey, in addition to being an excellent luthier. He has repaired and donated instruments to the Skyline School Guitar class taught by Cheyenne McIntosh. We celebrate garden goodies, honey, music and the promise of spring in just 27 days.
               Saturday, March 22, 2025, there will be a pie supper to raise funds to keep the Vanzant Community Building doors open and operating. Pulled pork and other food will be available before the auction begins. Doors open at 5 pm with the auction beginning at 6 pm. There has not been a fundraiser for the community building since 2011. Funds have run out. This has been the accommodating venue for many benefits–benefits for victims of house fires and heath issues, as well as birthday celebrations and celebrations of life. It is a polling place and a place for politicians to rally. The Thursday night Vanzant Bluegrass Jam every week and the Vanzant Picnic every summer are some of the glue that connects Ava, Mountain Grove, Norwood, Willow Springs, Dora, Prior, Champion, Gentryville and probably Spotted Hong and other sweet spots. Come together to help keep a part of the history of our community alive and thriving! It is a pie supper, so maybe Kaitlyn McConnell will be there. Her Ozark Pie Project is producing a cookbook soon. She may have some of Esther’s and Teresa’s recipes that brought substantial auction money for many good causes over the years.
                Sunday marked the anniversary of the day the flag was raised on Iwo Jima in 1945. The American victory there significantly weakened the Japanese early warning system and helped hasten the end of World War Two. The country was allied with Great Britian and the Soviet Union at that time. Times have changed and some of us old folks recall the warning of Nakita Khrushchev way back in 1956. Look it up and look up to enjoy these beautiful blue skies and the optimism of Champion–Looking on the Bright Side!

               The buzzards are back. Surely that is a harbinger of spring. They are beautiful at a distance with their soaring flight–not so pretty up close, but that is subjective. They have their work to do and it is an important service they provide. Daffodils are poking up bright green through the brown grass and that gives us more optimism. Champions had half a dozen visiting robins on Sunday, bobbing along through the garden. They give is more hope, which they say springs eternal.
                Last Friday’s Valentine celebration, replete with fresh flowers and chocolate, included wonderful declarations of love. One of those borrowed from Roger Miller goes: “Roses are red; violets are purple. I love you and maple surpel.” Andrew Kuster operates Tri County Drone LLC, a very interesting enterprise. He celebrates his birthday on Valentine’s Day. Douglas County historian Cinita Brown shares her birthday on the 15th with Skyline School’s prekindergartner Everett Nelson. The 17th is for Linda Clark who photographs the moon through the threes. The 18th has Skyline students fourth grader Rayleigh Harvey, and second grader Perry Banks celebrating birthdays. That day is also a good one for Pete Proctor and Madelyn Boehs. On the 19th we remember Champion Ruby Proctor and dear friend, Trish Davis. Mike Powers shares his big day on the 20th with Skyline prekindergarten Jaxon Farris and fourth grader Jaylee Sudderth. Joanna Bell will be celebrated on the 21st and the 23rd is for Champion Stacy Krider Kline, now living in Tennessee. The 24th is for super gardener, Arnie Ahlstedt. Skyline first grade student Zachary Harvey’s birthday is on the 28th. Frankie Proctor will not have a birthday this year because our calendar does not have February 29th on it. Happy Birthday to all of you!
                Saturday had Champions around the old wood stove talking about the cutest grandbabies in the world, donkeys, and the great achievement of Champion archer Jacob Brixey. Don and Reba Bishop made a most welcome appearance. Downsizing and disposing of a lifetime of accumulated and inherited treasures was a topic of discussion–an onerous task. Cold weather has given some old Champions time to get started. One opened a box of old papers to find a “Life ” magazine from May 20, 1946. It is a little ragged around the edges, but complete. It cost ten cents. A story about a boy lifting a calf every day for 201 days was illustrated with two pages of pictures. The calf weighed 75 pounds to start with and 365 pounds when he lifted her for the last time. Stories about the ‘black market” and the coal strike that was halted after the U.S. economy started to shut down were some of the serious topics along with a report that Nazi women who had been guards in the concentration camps, were in prison gaining weight. Politis and world events seem very much like what we are seeing today. It is a big magazine with lots of colorful advertising and a story about a nine-year-old boy who had swallowed eighteen glass marbles. The x-ray picture took up most of the page. The fashion of the day was elegant and modest by today’s standards. Downsizing and disposing of treasures might be hampered by interesting finds. A week’s worth of seriously cold weather will be well spent. Stay inside if you can and reminisce
                    Monday, we celebrated the birthday of George Washington, now the federal holiday called Presidents’ Day.
We might wonder what George would have to say about these days. Some of his famous quotes are: “It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.” “Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” “There is nothing which van better deserve your patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.” We are happy here in Champion–Looking on the Bright Side!

             Wednesday at Champion was another of those interesting days. A couple celebrating their 27th wedding anniversary had enjoyed a few days at the River of Life cabins over in Dora and on their way home, some four or five hours away, stopped in to sit around the stove and visit. They had heard about Champion from Kaitlyn McConnell at Ozarks Alive. Steve and Sharon Schlichting are big bluegrass fans and enjoy a jam anytime they can find one. Steve does not play, but he has a guitar and a mandolin made from a walnut tree that grew on his family farm. He is a retired truck driver and a coon hunter with a lot of stories to tell. He said his own Mother, when asked about his pedigree, said, “He’s half hound dog and half Indian. If he isn’t sitting on his ass howling about something, he’s on the warpath.”
                Angela McKay teaches sixth and seventh grade students at our wonderful Skyline R2 School. He birthday was on Thursday. She said it had been a lovely day with cards and singing from her students. “My son-in-law baked me a strawberry shortcake! My favorite!” More good news comes as Champion, Jacob Brixey has qualified for state in his archery tournament in Mt. Grove on Saturday with some great scores. Calvin Chambers did a nine-mile ride on Saturday with eleven of his friends. He said they did not see the sun, but their spirits were not dampened.
               Chief’s fans may have their spirits dampened a little, but they will get over it. Sports have been a good diversion from calamitous world events. Since the future is murky at best, we can look backward for some inspiration. Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.” He also said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Theodore Roosevelt said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Another president said, “The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil.” Another one said, “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.” Ideas are plentiful in Champion–Looking on the Bright Side!

                  If Wilbur, our Champion groundhog, had been up early on Sunday morning he would not have seen his shadow and so farmers could figure it to be safe to begin plowing and planting. Had he slept a little later, he would definitely have seen his shadow and so would return to nap again for six weeks. Our wonderful highspeed internet (Thank you White River Connect!) tells us that the week ending in Valentines’ Day will be cold, wet and snowy, thereafter we may expect mild weather leading up to spring. Last week’s ice is now serious mud with some of the same kind of exciting slipping and sliding on our much-traveled country lanes that the ice gave us. The General reported, “Some fool attempting to bypass the road closure sign got stuck in my front yard. He was caught red-handed and received an immediate firm lecture.” He went on to say that after leaving it there for a couple of days he was able t shovel it out. farmers with big equipment were seen harvesting gravel from the great banks of it deposited during the election day flood. The gravel may go to fill mudholes and ruts, and if so, bravo!
                   February birthdays to celebrate include Skyline seventh grader Addison Carroll on the 1st along with Champion Glen Cooley, Champion grandson Zack Alexander, and Sarah Cloud. Angie Heffern, Connie Grand, Catherine Mallernee and Charlene Dupree all celebrate on the 2nd. The 2nd is also the day we remember our friend Judy Sharon. We miss her. Denlow’s premier cattle farmer has the 3rd for his party. The November flood deposited great sandbanks on some of his fields and took down lots of fences. Farmers are the hardworking people who keep us fed. The Cowboy celebrates on the 7th. He is a fan of ‘The Youn and the Restless’ and has been since before he stopped getting on horses. Skyline’s prekindergartner Ember Leigh Miller has the 8th for her big day and Jonas Makenzie, a fourth grader, has the 9th for his. Happy birthday to all of you.
                     Skyline students are enjoying Super Bowl Send-Off Spirit Week. The Super Bowl will offer some good diversion from current events. Until then Cathie Alsup Reilly might suggest a You Tube episode of “Twin Chefs Milkshakes.” Enjoy watching brotherly love in action along with competitiveness, camaraderie and humor as they make brownies, or meatloaf, or pings in a blanket. It is like turning off the news and visiting with your favorite uncles. Thank you, Cathie.
                    We started this week on Monday with a trip to the Denlow Cemetery to say goodbye to Larry Wrinkles, raised in Champion, son of Clifford and Esther Wrinkles. Family, friends and neighbors gathered on that hillside on an unusually warm and beautiful February day to bid a Champion farewell. On Friday we will go there again to remember Beverly Barnhart, married to Alvin for 63 years. We miss our friends and neighbors who have been with us as Champions–Looking on the Bright Side!