Champions were dusting and polishing their thimbles to use for rain gauges when Sunday’s showers netted them almost half an inch of the wonderful stuff. Miss B. Denlow’s old dad had been having to haul water to keep his mud puddle filled up to ward off visitors at Wolf Pen Hollow. When he is not doing that, he is reading “Early Settlers of Douglas County Missouri.” He had been wanting to read it for several years and finally was able to get a copy from Amazon. $32.50 for the 307 pages and well worth the money for helping the good man to stay in out of the heat and pass the time educating himself and his young ones as to their forbearers. The book was written by Bessie Janet Woods Selleck and published in 1974. Not much information concerning the author pops up on the internet. Perhaps the undisputed checkers champion, Sharon Sanders, of the Douglas County Museum and Historical Society can provide some good information about her for inquiring Champions.

Civic minded individuals make up a small number of citizens in any community. Ruby Hicks Proctor’s sons, Lyman and Frank, are a couple of those. They were out on Wednesday and Thursday at the Hicks Cemetery with weed eaters, nippers, and rakes to keep demarked the resting place of many local old timers, distant relatives of any number of current locals. The cemetery is also known as the Hicks, Hutchison, Proctor Cemetery, according to The General, another community activist, who showed up to help he said, “…after the hard work was done.” Victor Hugo may be his inspiration: “A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible and invisible labor. To contemplate is to toil. To think is to do.” That may beg the question: “What does he think he is doing?”

Sophia Loren responded to the inquiry about how she stays so young and vital at age 87. “Maintain good posture and don’t make those ‘old people’ noises when you get up.” That put several Old Champions apologizing to Sophia regularly as they struggled up from their chairs and sofas. Then, a friend relayed the information given her by a physical therapist who said that it is good to grunt and to make those noises that help you get up. It adds vigor to your actions and helps to clear your throat. This information has changed the tone of at least one Champion residence. Imagine the concept of entertaining disparate points of view over a simple action. Imagine learning that something you thought was right was not as right as you thought it was. It is sort of like politics where “by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve.” (Romans 16:18) Also, there is the matter of fighting a culture war rather than a class war. That is where the advisor to the king says, “You don’t have to fight them. Just convince the pitchfork people that the torch people want to take their pitchforks away.”

The Reading Room in the Historic Emporium in Downtown Champion is an excellent spot to enjoy a game of checkers and to learn about current events and local history from the interesting reading material available there. Likely as not, there will be a loitering old timer, some descendant of early settlers, who can spin an intriguing yard long yarn about the old days. Come sit a spell out on the wide veranda where you can meet good neighbors and soak up some of the beauty of Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!


 
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