Champion News

The wild vicissitudes of weather and of life in general keep Champions on their toes. They are not tiptoeing through the tulips, but are awash in daffodils, and big fields of grass seem to have turned green overnight. Spring is almost here even as we have sprung forward in time. Folks with jobs and students are having to adjust for the time change, while old, retired people are hardly bothered at all. Garden planning and preparation is well underway. In the absence of a good yard dog, constructing a fence tall enough to discourage deer takes some serious effort. Living in the country includes serious challenges and daily delights. Lucky us.

Kay Dennis may still be making brooms. Her birthday is March 9th. Skyline third grader, C.J. Castillo, celebrates on the 11th. The 12th is the day we remember Champion Geoff Metroplos and Cathie Odneal. Geoff was a master of many trades. One of his old friends said of his own carpentry that Geoff would be the only person who would see that it was out of plumb or not level. Cathie and her sister, Myrtle Harris, were regulars at the Vanzant Jam. That is where J.R. Johnston could be found with his banjo every Thursday. March 13th was his birthday. Skyline seventh grader, Trinity Castillo, will party on the 13th and fifth grader, Lillith Jeffery, will do that on March 16th, as will Elizabeth Mastrangelo Brown. Meanwhile, over in Scotland, Ursula Donnely and Sam Sonite will share the Ides of March for their big day. Sam is exactly 30 years older than his distant cousin Jacob Masters, who lives around Houston Texas and has a serious background in baseball. Skyline eighth grader, Grace Spence, will have her birthday on March 18th, and her Champion friends and neighbors wish her and all our celebrants happy days and good memories.

“Camp Learn A Lot” at Skyline on Thursday evening was full of adventure, literacy and math exploration with hands on learning. And Friday students and staff gave a big shout out to Mr. Bud. He is the maintenance engineer that keeps the place running smoothly, fixing problems and keeping the building safe and ready every day. He can be seen taking care of the grounds and taking care of the buses and doing all the everyday things that keep our great little rural school going. What a Champion! Looking on the Bright Side!

The prospect of a rainy week ahead is one that Champions embrace. Rain on a tin roof is a particular kind of sweet music after such a long dry spell. Gardens drink it up. The lunar eclipse due on Tuesday morning will be the first total lunar eclipse visible in North America in years, with the next one not expected until June 2029 for the U.S. We will be pleased to witness it if the rain clouds allow it, but we would just as soon have the rain. While many gardeners already have potatoes in the ground, others figure they have until St. Patrick’s Day and will be hustling to get the ground ready. Sue’s Greenhouse is ready already. She has had her grand opening featuring various types of seed potatoes and onion sets and starts. Her Champion friends will see her often as Spring approaches.

Wednesday’s Champion Jam featured the Whetstone Kid, 1976 Guiness Book of World Records holder as Pickathon Champion. He has come a long way from Scratch Ankle, Kentucky and has fallen in with a good crowd. Gina Hollingshad brought her bass guitar, her amazing repertory, and her beautiful voice. The fair Carissa joined The General harmonizing sweetly on a high-lonesome cowboy song. They reprised that haunting melody at the Vanzant Jam Thursday evening. Young Jeff Dutton, who may be around two years old, brought rounds of smiles and giggles from the crowd that night. He was in fine voice and having fun. He came in the company of his parents and his musical sisters, Margo and Mena. Hopes are this music loving family will be regulars at the local jams. They will get acquainted with the nicest people.

A glorious seventy-seven degree Saturday had townsfolk meandering out on country lanes visiting great grandmothers and old neighbors. Others were out on a nostalgic tour of ancestral birthplaces and stomping grounds. Whether our ties to this part of the world are deep and ancestral or just a few decades old or only a few years or less, we count ourselves truly blessed to live amid such natural beauty and among genuinely good neighbors—Champions—Looking on the Bright Side!