Champion News

Wayne and Jo Ann Anderson just swinging.

The year flies around so quickly.  Already it is time for another Champion School Reunion again.  The first one was in 1984.  The weather forecast will have us believe that it will be 80 or so degrees, partly cloudy with 50% humidity.  That sounds fine for the Saturday before Labor Day.  Everyone with any connection to the school is welcome.  Come visit with your Old Champion friends, or come to get acquainted with them if you are new to the area.  There may be music.  There will definitely be a good pot luck dinner starting around noon.  Bring your lawn chairs and your instruments if you want to play.  Look at The Champion News at www.championnews.us.  Over on the right side of the page find Champion School Reunion 2008.  There is a picture there called “Dynamic Duo.”  It is a picture of Lonnie Krider and Wayne Anderson with the information that they had been playing together for forty years.  There is also a nice video of them singing “Once More” together with Linda Clark and Brenda and Luke Dartt.  Find that video in the Music Category under “Lonnie and Wayne.”  Recently Fae Krider said that “Once More” was one of the first songs that Lonnie and Wayne learned.  She said they knew that one and one more, so there was one for an encore, but no more.  They learned more as the years went by and were both accomplished and generous musicians—both gone on now and much missed by the many privileged to have known them.  On the way to Ava one spring morning a couple of years ago, a Champion happened by to see Wayne and Jo Ann Anderson sitting on the porch of their old house.  How often they must have sat there together looking out over their beautiful garden.  They had a lovely view of the sunrise and were great fans of the Bright Side like all Champions.

Pete Proctor will be going on the Honor Flight to Washington D.C. this week.  It is an important program for Veterans and his friends are glad for him to have the opportunity to go there again to see all the memorials in the company of other Veterans.  Hopes are he will be at the Champion School Reunion to share his adventure with family and friends.  Pete and The General and others put a lot of good effort into The Denlow Cemetery.  It always looks good.  He is also very active in the American Legion and officiates at Veteran’s funerals in the area.  Someone contacted Pete the other day to say they had been in Mountain Grove and had seen a tall flagpole over in the west part of town with a Confederate flag flying above the American flag.  He said that it was not the first time this individual had been warned about that behavior.  It is not illegal to do it that way but it is not considered to be appropriate protocol.

What is appropriate these days seems to be subjective—based on personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.  It contrasts with objective.  A federal appeals court has let ExxonMobil largely off the hook for a 2013 pipeline spill that deluged a neighborhood in Mayflower, Arkansas with more than 200,000 gallons of heavy tar sands crude oil, sickening residents and forcing them from their homes.  The court decided that it was an unfortunate fact that despite adherence to safety guidelines and regulations, oil spills do occur and that the aging pipeline failed without violating any safety regulations in spite of the fact that it had been leaking and was susceptible to a higher risk of seam failure.  This is not really a big deal unless it is your yard being oiled or if you were able to escape any responsibility even though you own stock in ExxonMobil or Pegasus.  It turns out almost everything is subjective.  Meanwhile, Chase Iron Eyes is working to get the charges against all of the water protectors dropped now that the U.S. District Court has ruled that the environmental review of the Dakota Access pipeline was inadequate and must be reconsidered.

There are many Texas connections here in the Ozarks.  People there are suffering and are in dire straits.  The prospect of the hurricane being there for an extended period of time is dismal.  As one recently quipped about ‘house guests and fish only being good for three days,’ hospitality runs out pretty fast for a rude guest.  Go dump your water elsewhere, Harvey.  There have been thousands of people rescued from their rooftops, from cars and trucks by many different agencies and organizations and volunteers.  Assistance is pouring in from across the country and it is the best part of America that we step up to help each other.  Natural disasters can happen anywhere on the planet and none of us is exempt from being vulnerable to something.  There have been tornadoes in Douglas County in every month of the year.  No place is truly ‘safe.’  The philosophy of lending a helping hand—love thy neighbor–is something to encourage at a time when the culture of extreme divisiveness seems to be a cataclysm in itself.  The storms of life may come in the form of hurricanes or personal and family tragedies that break the heart.  Champion hearts swell with love and compassion for their neighbors.

It is a pleasant surprise to get to the foot of the drive to find that the road grader has passed that way.  Does anyone know how many miles of county roads these gentlemen from the Drury shed maintain?  The Champion News will endeavor to find out and meanwhile we will join our neighbors in expressing our appreciation for all their hard work.  Our Route 72 mail carrier is another Champion in these parts.  Karen Ross and her co-workers do a great job of getting the mail to us.  Travel our beautiful roads down to the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek any day of the week.  The horseshoe pitch is getting quite a work out these days over at the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square, but there have been no reports of checker matches.  Young Chase was there Wednesday leading the band with his new ukulele.  “The ABC Song,” “Row Your Boat,” “Old McDonald” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider” are most of his repertory, but he will doubtlessly expand it over time.  A hot new band called Second Wind has burst upon the scene.  Maybe they will have some recordings out soon.  Sherry Bennett, Lynnette Cantrell, Candi Bartsch and Teresa Davis Lindsay represent a lot of musical talent so their friends and fans will be looking forward to hearing what they put together.  There are many exciting events coming up–school and family reunions, trail rides, wagon trains and the Pioneer Heritage Festival of the Ozarks on October 7 and 8.  It is easy to find a song in your heart.  “The storm in its fury broke today crushing hopes that we cherish so dear.  Clouds and storms will in time pass away, the sun will shine again, bright and clear” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!