Champion News

CHAMPION—October 26, 2009

        Champion enjoyed a perfect autumn day for Bud Hutchison’s Fall Trail Ride on Saturday.  It was a perfect day all around the County for horse activities.  The Saddle Club in Ava had a ride over a specially developed course.  There was a big auction in Ava that included all kinds of farm and horse equipment and horses.  Russell Wood decided to move his trail ride up a week on the calendar.  Anyone with a horse and the desire to enjoy an autumn day had lots of choices.  The six riders that made the Champion ride set out North up over a steep little hill.  They crossed Clever Creek and turned east.  One was heard to ask another if he remembered the year the creek was up so high they made a young man riding a little mule to cross it first before the rest of them would go through it.  The reasoning behind that was not clear, but they had no such trouble this time as the creek was up only a little.  As they wound through the country on the way to Drury they happened to find Russell Upshaw visiting the old family home-place.  On down the trail they found Robert Upshaw at his family home place so the ride was punctuated with some good socializing.  Wilma Hutchison was waiting for them at Drury and orchestrated another great photograph of the group.  She has photos of every one of these rides with the names of all the riders every year.  One of the photos taken on Saturday will be chosen to be the new Number Five in the series of Ten Champion Picture Post Cards.  They are available at Henson’s Store in Downtown Champion.  It is on the North Side of the Square.
        Wilma was recovering from injuries to her knees sustained in a recent fall.  Her enthusiasm was not flagging, however, and she has much entertaining information to share that she has gleaned from Bud and others through the years.  She writes things down on old envelopes and in notebooks when she catches Bud reminiscing.  One crumpled envelope had notes about how John Proctor owned the chestnut stallion known as “Old Fox.”  Proctor lived between Denlow and Champion close to Fox Creek and farmed 240 acres there.  He was known as a hardworking man, well respected in the area.  After he and his wife passed away, their son, Feldie, and his family moved to the farm and kept Old Fox as a stud horse.  A number of family members in the Champion and Denlow area bred their horses to Old Fox.  They sold him to Everett Irby in 1944.  Irby lived at Wheelis Creek.  Bud and a lot of other people were there at Champion to see Old Fox loaded into a truck with stock racks.  Some man standing in the crowd said, “He’s a good one!”  There are pictures of Old Fox in the public areas of the Fox Trotters Association in Ava where he is well regarded as one of the most influential sires of this easy riding versatile breed of horses.  Fox trotters were developed in the Ozarks and are known for their stamina, soundness and gentle disposition.  The trail ride wound up back at Champion on schedule with all riders having had a pleasant outing.  Accompanying Bud were Hershel Letsinger, Bob Herd, Jackie Coonts, Dale Lawson and Nancy Burns.

        Wilma said that Esther Wrinkles usually comes to Drury to visit with the trail riders and have lunch, but she was not there this time.  Her son, Larry, and daughter-in-law, Theresa, had taken Esther up to Licking, Missouri to the home of Patricia Smith.  Patricia hosted a party for the 87^th birthday of Ms. Erla Wrinkles, Esther’s sister-in-law.  Three of Erla’s six children celebrated with their Mother—Patricia Smith, Helen Ice, and Billy Wrinkles.  It was a nice gathering Esther said.  Esther also spoke of the passing of Thelma Mallernee.  She was a lifelong resident of the area with ties throughout the community.  She was married to Roy Mallernee for 67 years.  Her services were held Friday and she was buried at Denlow.

        Young Kyle Barker is about to become a big brother!  A great gathering of interested parties had a party for his Mom, Deborah, on Saturday.  This kind of party is called a “shower” and everybody had a good time…sisters, aunts, grandmothers, cousins, girlfriends, and in-laws.  There were games, presents and good food.  It couldn’t have been better.  It seems that a number of Champions have October birthdays!  How Jolly!  One got a card that said, “Laugh so hard that you go into silent laugh mode and you come dangerously close to falling out of your chair, but you don’t.”  Another suggested that a way to look younger than your age is to lie outrageously about how old you are…”I’m 102 this year.”  Protracted celebrations are acceptable in Champion and Champions extend their best wishes to each other during these special days, especially to the young and lovely Mrs. Krider!

        It happens in Champion and elsewhere that the lives of remarkable people are celebrated posthumously.  Sometime after the solemn somber service when survivors have made mild with sweet tears the soil to receive again what remains when the soul has flown, sometime later when the hard edge of separation has been smoothed and softened by time, the laughter returns.  The laughter returned with the music and with the deep connections of old friends and the implausible ones made of only mutual acquaintance, with stories of remembrance in a great feast of friendship celebrating the fullness of a ripe remarkable life, one savored with passion and delight–the life of Claude DeBogan.  He was there.

        The U.S. military is increasingly interested in understanding and more efficiently treating blast-induced brain injuries, as between 10-20% of the soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan return with concussions from explosive blasts.  Some say the percentage is much higher.  No one returning from combat returns unchanged.  Every one of them needs to be met with the Love and Gratitude they have due them.

        A couple of Champion women are experimenting with ultrasonic rodent repellers.  It will be a welcome trick for them if the mice are uncomfortable in their kitchens!  These Champions will be busy this week getting some mums planted out in the yard for next spring.  Linda over at the Plant Place in Norwood has some nice ones as well as a number of perennials that will be reminders that autumn and winter will again give way to spring and glorious summer.  Just now little goblins and pirates and Tinkerbells are getting ready to extort candy from their neighbors on the threat of a trick.  Maybe Halloween will be a rainy, gloomy night with whistling wind and unexpected spooks around every corner.  “Look, he’s crawling up my wall, black and hairy, very small.  Now he’s up above my head, hanging by a little thread. Boris the Spider!  Creepy crawly, creepy creepy crawly crawly!” Written by John Entwistle of The Who, it is a favorite for this season.  Sing a spooky song out on the porch at Henson’s Store in downtown Champion.  Report any unexplained muddy barefooted footprints across your own porch to Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or to Champion News.  It could be Lem and Ned!  Get a look at that new Number Five in the series of Champion Picture Post Cards at www.championnews.us.  It is a doosie and right across the front of it—“Champion! Looking on the Bright Side!”