Champion News

CHAMPION—November 23, 2014

        Friends and family flooding into and out of Champion are readying for the feasts and celebrations of the season.  Hopes are for everyone to be safe on the road.  It is a dangerous place at best, with people thinking about the smells of pot luck dishes flooding the car, who they will see when they get there, things left undone at home and myriad other things.  Subtle color changes and damp pavement winding through dense woodlands and open fields with turkeys and bald eagles perched high and ready, the very definition of equipoise, and the possibility of deer appearing out of nowhere at any time, make giving attention to the road an exciting and challenging prospect.  Mix that concept with conversation and/or music and a driver needs to pay attention.  Arriving safely is plenty of reason to be thankful—turkey or not.

        Linda’s granddaughter is Danniel.  She just had her 20^th birthday back on November 7^th.  It is amazing that the years have gone by so quickly.  Linda has kept her sweet friendly smile and has maintained a good close relationship with the lovely Danniel.  Deward’s Daughter, the fair Marian, has just had her 85^th birthday.  TCN has Marian to thank for “Looking on the Bright Side!”  She said that her dad had that good kind of attitude and passed it on.  She said he would talk about Champion as ‘the village.’  The Village of Champion wishes Marian a great day.  She is probably being overrun by cousins, daughters and the like.  When Champions see eagles, they think of Marian, because she is a real fan of the National bird.  South Champion Sue is reported to have been ‘Sue t’ bly’ celebrated on her day, the 23^rd.  Brava!  Skyline fourth grader, Jhonn Rhodes, and first grader, Lane Watkins, share November 30^th as their birthday.  They are fortunate to each have several years ahead of them at this fine institution.  Danniel is studying to be a teacher, Sue taught math, and Marian taught fourth grade for many years.  The Skyline R2 School is one of those precious little rural schools that define the heart of this community.  What a gift it will be to them in the future to be able to say, “There were eleven people in my fifth grade class.”  The good stuff is going on for them right now.  By the way, if you are headed down to the ‘Bright Side,’ feel free to drop your change or some extra bucks into that fruit jar that has the little note on it about The Skyline R2 School Foundation working toward getting some modern water fountains into the school.  Champion!

        It turns out that not everyone in Champion is connected to the internet.  Some unconnected people wonder sometimes just what they might be missing.  As a service to them, TCN (The Champion News) offers a transcript of some of the Facebook activity of last Friday evening.  Robert Upshaw posted:  “I’m proud of myself today.  Some wind bag was trying to get me to believe a farfetched tale of which I don’t think there was a whole lot of truth.  So I just asked him, ‘Do I have stupid written of my forehead?’  That pretty well shut him up.  All he said after that was, ‘Ha! Ha!  That wouldn’t be necessary,’ as he walked away.”  By 9:39 Linda Clark, Loretta Upshaw, Elva Upshaw Brott and 21 others had ‘liked’ this.  Tracee Davis said, “LOL.” (Laughing Out Loud).  Kristi Towe said, “Lol!” (Laughing out loud).   Sami McCleary said, “Lol now Robert did you visit Champion today?”  Brenda Coffman Massey said, “lolol.”  Rusty Ingram said, “Way to go Robert Upshaw.”  Lynnette Cantrell just laughed, “hahahahhaha.”  Cathie Alsup Reilly said, “lol.”  Brent Nunn said, “You got the best of that guy.  It got me thinkin, though, if anybody really has that on their forehead, and I looked in a mirror, just in case.  I’m probably OK, although I can’t read anything backwards.”  Connie Klund said, “Ya got him didn’t ya…”  Debbie Stone said, “Robert, you’re such a quick thinker!  Haha.”  Sylvia Williams McClellan said, “You weren’t talking to yourself were you?”  Robert Upshaw then said, “I used to ask myself questions, but the answers were so complicated I couldn’t understand them.”  Sylvia Williams McClellan said, “I figure that’s how I get the best answers.”  Brent Nun said, “Been known to argue with myself, and lose.”   River Stillwood said, “You really told him, Mr. Brilliant!”  Jewell Hall Elliot said, “Go Robert!!!” then “Oh, I forgot Go Robert Earl!!”  Tom Culler said, “…you must have been talking with someone who ‘works’ in Washing D.C., Bob!”  (A sad emoticon appears next.  It is just a combination of punctuation as in “:(”.)  And Virginia Canada said, “Ha! Ha!”   All this transpired over the course of two or three hours but references to it will probably go on for a day or two.  Scrolling on down, a person can see somebody scratching the belly of a tiny pig and then there might be a little video of The McClurg Jam.  In the middle of many of other things the next day was this:  “I’m thanking River Stillwood at the Vanzant Country Store in advance.  She is going to make a little plague for my forehead which will read, “STUPID DON’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE.”  She thinks, for my best interests, I should wear it 24/7.  Again, Thanks, River.”  To end this extraordinarily long paragraph, do you folks without computers think you are missing much?

        Ms. Anne Thrope writes in as if TCN is her personal soap box.  “You Liberals think you’ve won this Keystone XL thing, but you are in for a fight.  They’ll not give up on this.  The Koch brothers have mountains of money you cannot imagine that they will throw at this thing until people are so tired of it that they will forget to care.  Nobody will spend a dollar or a minute to remind people about the Mayflower oil spill in Arkansas.  Didn’t hear about it?  Surprise, surprise!  Everybody was so warped out of shape over Benghazi and the House of Representatives has just issued its report that says it was a non-deal.  Come on people!  Are we foxes or coyotes?”  She did have some nice things to say about those old hippies Neil Young and Willie Nelson out there in Nebraska giving concerts and support to the farmers and Native Americans.  Perhaps she will explain the foxes and coyotes in her next rant.  Feel free to join the discussion at champion@championnews.us or in person around the big wood stove.

        On Wednesday a visitor to Champion met up with Dave Partell, who responded to, “How you doing?” with, “I’m too blessed to be stressed.”  That seems fine.  As the morning passed more regular Wednesday folks arrived…Ethel and Bob Leach were looking good and seemed to be comfortable with the weather and the things that change with their regular chores as a consequence.  The first week end of regular deer season resulted in the harvesting of 1,000 deer in Douglas County.  There are reports of some exotic game in the area as well.  Stay tuned for more information about this.  The population of the area is about to be boosted as Peanut Teagan-Super-Girl is about to be a big sister.  It is very exciting to be a resident of the Village, at the bottom of several hills, at the end of the pavement, on the wide, wild banks of Old Fox Creek.  Sing your favorite song of thanksgiving out on the spacious veranda of the Historic Emporium.  “Saddle me up a big white goose, tie me on her and turn her loose! Oh! Me! Oh My!  Love that country pie!”  Every day is full of Thanks giving in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!