Champion News

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!

 

Monkey Business

Deward Henson’s granddaughter, Jenny, had her birthday on July 8th. Skyline Students Lily Trujillo and Sumer Parman had the 10th for their big day. The 19th will be the big day for Ethan Alexander and Zee Heffern up in Springfield. Skyliners, Zoe Georges, Ronnie Trammel, Joseph Hastings and Jaci Borders celebrate on the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 27th. Reba Bishop, long time Champion friend will enjoy her day on the 28th. Karen Ross used to be our Champion mail carrier, and now she is delivering on another route. Hopefully, she will find some birthday cards in mailboxes on the 29th, her special day. That is also the birthday of Cheyenne McIntosh, Skyline’s talented music teacher.

56th Annual Vanzant Picnic

Friday night of the 56th Annual Vanzant Picnic was a meltdown scorcher, causing some to worry for the health and safety of those Eastern Douglas County Volunteer Firefighters and others out directing traffic and doing the hard work that makes an important event like this come off so well. The effort was still significant on Saturday, but the weather was wonderful, perfect timing for a delightful brief reprieve from the oppressive heat of recent days and of days to come, according to prognosticators. The cloudy sky and temperatures in the 80s were the reward for having endured, and, at the same time, reminders of what our days may be like again someday, surely. On Sunday morning, Jody Blackburn said it perfectly: “Last night marked the close of the 56th annual Vanzant Community Picnic! There was lots of laughter, even a few tears (happy ones). Families and friends reunited was a beautiful sight to behold. There was evidence of community and teamwork last night (for the help in closing and cleaning up) …so from volunteers to visitors…THANK YOU.” Then she goes on to suggest that it would be a great idea to do it all over again next year. Some almost rock-and-roll, lots of great bluegrass, some genuine country and sweet gospel music filled the air and had picnic attendees delighted that this part of the country has so much musical talent. It also has a lot of hard working, good-hearted people who know that it is a genuine blessing to be a part of these many overlapping communities coming together in fun and fellowship all these many years. It was another peaceful, pleasant affair—not a dog fight or a fist fight all night.

Experienced, successful gardeners let an Old Champion know that, most likely, the trouble she is having with her tomatoes this year is because over-watering. The complaint was that it was more than just blossom end rot, it was whole tomato rot. She will cut back on her watering and use that time for study. Already she has learned that it is easier to recover from dehydration than from drowning. Now, to the beans: The plants are healthy and vigorous, but the blooms are sparse and underdeveloped. There are no beans. Those same experts attribute this to the unusual heat. Perhaps,if earnest gardeners can keep the plants healthy until the weather cools down, there will be beans. The black eyed peas are going gang busters, however, and the prettiest corn patch in the neighborhood is at Valery and Ronnie Thompson’s place. Get some good gardening advice or just do some afternoon lollygagging in the cool of the Historic Emporium down on the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek. Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

On the first of July friends and family celebrate the birthday of Skyline student Aiden Yager, as well as that of a charming Old Champion curmudgeon up on Cold Springs Road. Beverly Barnhart and Isaiah Hastings enjoy the 2nd for their birthdays. Isaiah is a student and Beverly is a neighbor living just north of the school. Then comes the birthday of our Great Nation when we celebrate the birth of American Independence. There will be fireworks, concerts, parades, great potluck feastings and barbeques all across the country. Local creek banks will be choked with celebrants. A sign posted at the Mill Pond says, “Warning! Hippies have been spotted in this area! Peace, Love and Understanding could break out at any moment!” Virginia Canada, now living up in Columbia, will celebrate on the 5th. Janet Burns, down in Arkansas, shares her day on the 6th with the Dali Lama and with Walter Darrell Haden. Professor Haden grew up around in Smallett and was famous for a number of things including having written “All the Late News from the Courthouse,” a scathing, hilarious incitement of local Douglas County corruption set to music. A great friend of The Champion News, he passed away in 2014. Robert Brown, an alumnus of the Champion School was 79 on July 7, 2019. A Champion grandson, Kruz Kuzt also celebrates on the 7th, though time has gotten away from us, and we do not know how old the lad must be by now.

The Old The New

The Historic Emporium out on the North side of the Square in downtown Champion is a busy place. Commerce is brisk and any day can find neighbors meeting serendipitously or by plan to visit for a minute or a spell. Wednesday’s stories out on the wide veranda involved a couple of fellows who got into it a few decades ago. The fracus started out in the feed room in the back of the old Champion Store and escalated through the store, breaking the front window, and rolling out onto the porch and then into the yard. Their names are still being withheld even as they were from Elsie Curtis way back then, which was a source of much aggravation for her. Just last summer a big guy snatched an ice cream sandwich from a small badly behaved child, took two bites of it then threw it in the trash can with a thud. The kid was amazed. He just stood there with his mouth open. The big guy replaced the ice cream and imagined, as did stunned spectators, that the boy had learned a lesson. In ten or fifteen years we may know.

The New

The Old

A first time visitor to the Historic Emporium was reminded of the Rabbit Hash General Store near where he grew up in Kentucky. Rabbit Hash, Kentucky had a population of 254 in 2020, somewhat larger than Champion. The store dated back to 1831 and was regarded as the best known and best preserved country store in Kentucky. The sign said Tobacco, Potions, Sundries Notions with a big red Coca Cola logo. A fire accidentally started by the old potbellied stove destroyed the store in February of 2016, but by April of 2017, it was restored and reopened. It is to be noted that when the original Champion Store was replaced back in 2011, business was not interrupted for a single day. See a report of “Henson’s Grand Reopening” in Snapshots here. Also find here the video David Richardson shared of the celebration of the new store. Set to music, Ashokan Farewell, you may see yourself in the photo montage of Champions—Looking on the Bright Side!

Sunday’s sigh of relief whispered all through Champion. The 17.5 drops of rain fell along with the thermometer’s numbers to soothe suffering summer sojourners to the Bright Side, as well as those permanent residents who have lost count of how many days since it last rained. The promise of a few cool days ahead restores some optimism, though the ‘dog days’ will officially arrive on July 3rd and will last until August 11. Ancient Greeks named them after the dog star Sirius for their heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck. Champions will persevere in the air conditioning and in wide, cold swimming holes, hoping that our neighbors who are farmers will take care of themselves out there while they are keeping the rest of us fed.

The first day of summer has us celebrating the birthday of native Champion, Linda Krider Watts, and Sierra Parsons out in Oregon, the cousin of Felix the Farmer. Cinita Brown had a birthday on June 22nd. She has long been a force for education and community service in Ava, helping to make it the nice place that it is. Skyline School’s Kash Hurt won this year’s ‘Fun Run’ hands down. His birthday is June 24th. His fellow student, Alexander Bradley, has the 28th for his big day. His Mom, Tabby Hurt of the Skyline administrative staff, celebrates on the 29th. The 25th was the birthday of the well remembered, Nick Massey, from up on Tar Button Road. He had a wonderful laugh, a keen eye for nature and the natural progression of life. The 28th and 29th we remember two great Champion ladies, Esther Wrinkles and Eva Powell. Esther was notorious for her pies and quilts and for writing for The Herald for more than fifty years—the Champion and Vanzant items. She was a founding member and staunch supporter of the Skyline Volunteer Fire Department. She could spin a yarn. Friends are still enjoying the ‘neck-pillows’ that Eva made and shared. She was quite a yarn spinner as well and taught a good lesson about handling barking dogs chasing the car out on our country lanes. She said to just slow way down. The dogs will get bored and give up the chase. She was right.

Sherry Bennet also has the 25th for her day. She is out making music and organizing music. She already has the lineup ready for the Pioneer Heritage Festival in early October. Family and friends let her know how much she is appreciated. Folks at the Barn Jam, the Vanzant Jam, the Barber Shop Jam, and her Dance class all celebrated her beautiful smile, lovely voice, excellent musicianship, good humor, and good works. Music is one of the sweet ties that bind.

Music is happening all over this time of the year. One of the next musical events will be the 56th annual Vanzant Picnic. Friday and Saturday, July 8th and 9th will have Whetstone, Stringed Union, and Backyard Bluegrass on the stage. On Saturday, those great local bands will be joined by the Finley River Boys. The picnic motto is “Bringing the community together since 1967.” The event is the product of hard work by members of the Eastern Douglas County Volunteer Fire Department. Great music, food, games, raffles, and the chance to connect with friends and folks last seen at this picnic will make for a great time. Maybe one of those candidates for Douglas County Presiding Commissioner will be there to assure us that, if elected, he will vehemently support high speed internet in our very rural areas.

George Orwell was born on June 25, 1903. For many who are familiar with his writing, he seemed to have been describing our world today. We are given pause to think and sometimes the amount of self-control it takes to not say what is on our mind is so exhausting that we need a nap afterwards. Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

 

Father’s Day again has given every man and woman and child a chance to say out loud what we want our fathers to know or wanted them to have known before they passed on. The “Mom and Dad Waltz” is an old tune that sums it up for many of us. “In my heart joy tears start because I’m happy and I pray every day for Mom and Pappy.” Every family is different, as is every father/child relationship. Where would we be without our fathers? We wouldn’t.

Glen Brandstedder can find live music most every day or evening of the week. At Vanzant on Thursday, he mentioned that Royce Henson, whose passing was marked last week, had been one of his teachers in Mansfield back in the day. He reckons it was in about 1953 or 1954 when he was in Mr. Henson’s woodworking shop class in the basement of the Mansfield High School, where he put together a cedar chest. It was a three story school building. Glen remembered an instance when an unruly student was ‘kicked in the butt’ up every step to the principal’s office. In such places as that, in those days, the board of education was often applied to the seat of learning. This extreme heat is keeping Glen and others from being out as much as they would like. He said he might not make it to the McClurg jam Monday. He used to deliver Kitty Clover Potato Chips to the store there back in the 1960s. He did that kind of delivery work for twenty five years all over the Ozarks. He has stories to tell.

Summer officially arrives on Tuesday, but it has been here for a few days already. It is prime time for family visits. Having young folks in the house is exciting for Old Champions. For days ahead of their arrival, the old folks plan chores, activities, and meals for company. Stories will be told, and memories made. It is the time we dream of during long, dreary winter days. Feed them on banana pudding and take them to the creek. Send them home with as many mementos of their visit as you can get them to take.

Old folks, our gardens are beautiful, but they need to be tended early in the morning and late in the evening. Take care. Drink water. Let those city kids visiting harvest the potatoes. Edie Richardson’s Garden is the kind of garden we would all have if we were as knowledgeable, resourceful, enthusiastic, and as well supported as she is by her handsome husband. The first tomatoes to show up in one Old Campion’s Garden is on a cherry tomato plant shared to Champion by our charming previous mail carrier, Karen Ross. (Our new mail carriers are also charming.) Karen is also a great gardener and has shared plants with her friends here often over the years. She and Edie are friends and Facebook has helped others of us stay in touch with them during these busy days. It turns out that as we accumulate more experiences and age, it takes less and less to keep us busy in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

 

“Summertime and the living is easy” or at least it was last week before the thermometer got all out of whack with the calendar. Summer routinely arrives on June 21st. Summer school is out for the Skyline students, who finished the session with a fabulous fishing trip on June 3rd. Photos of excited young fishermen filled the internet. Skyliner, Ava Hurt, had her birthday on June 8th and Zachary Ambroziac’s big day was the 14th. Jacob and Jenna Brixey had big days at the Tri County Fair with their Jersey cows. They and the other 4H members are on their way to being the farmers who will feed the country in the future. So, summertime is really here. The sweet, wet, cool spring has made our gardens lush.

Banjo David Medlock had a birthday on June 6th. Most likely someone brought it up at the Vanzant Jam on Thursday. Probably they sang that song to him, and chances are he plinked out, “Shave and a haircut six bits!” That is some of what certain bluegrassers call ‘closure.’ Champion Wayne Sutherland enjoyed his birthday on the 7th. Mr. Sutherland was 85 in 2015. You do the math. The Southerland family has a long, interesting history in Champion. Wayne’s father, Ed Sutherland may have been part of the fabled A.S.S. Construction company, made up of an Anderson, a Sutherland, and a Smith. Wayne’s daughter, Laine, who passed away in 2014, said that her grandfather, Ed, had once described her as “the ‘darnedest’ thing that ever peed behind a pair of tennis shoes.” He was just one of many colorful Champions of days gone by. There are still an interesting character or two in these parts, not naming any names.

Champions are polishing their reading glasses in anticipation of Letters to the Editor in The Herald. What reaction will local high strung epistolary fiends have to say about the ongoing January 6th Hearings? We are taught not to discuss politics and religion, but perhaps not doing so has made us inept at it. Knowing full well that we have friends and family members who believe fervently the opposite of our beliefs, how do we keep our relationships intact? We all love our Country. Surely, we all want peace and prosperity and wish harm to no one. While it can be excruciating to attempt to see things from the other point of view, it is worth the try. Or is it? While there may be no point at all in arguing with someone incapable of entertaining alternate perspectives, Aunt Eavvie said, “Can’t we just get along?”

A warm, sunny week with no rain has haymakers rolling in it. Our wet spring may produce yields per acre likely to surpass all records. Farmers know to keep their equipment in good repair, to keep themselves hydrated, to watch out for snakes and bears, and to keep a good song in their heads as they go up and down, round and round the fields in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

 

 

It is with sadness that we mark the passing of Champion Royce Henson on May 28th at the age of 88.   He grew up in Champion, the oldest son of Ezra and Sylvia Henson.  Ezra was a farmer and later on became the sheriff in Ava.  Sylvia wrote the Champion items from the same place it is being written today.  Royce, his two brothers Kenneth (Hovey) of Houston, Texas, and Andy of Columbia, Missouri, who passed away a few years ago, and their sister Eva Loyce Phillips of Bella Vista, Arkansas, walked the mile and a half from the farm to the school. He was rewarded with a silver dollar for perfect attendance when he was about 10 years old.  Royce said that as a kid in school he would never have imagined that the old building would ever have electric lights and gas heat.  Everything was lit with or run on kerosene in those days and the schoolhouse was heated by a big wood stove.  He went on to higher education at Southwest Missouri State University and along the way married Minnie Jo (Jody) Lorette from up at Oak Forest.  Their children are Valli, Victor, Vaughn and Jan, deceased.  Their grandchildren are Alex and Evan Mills, Whitaker Taryn, Carlyn and Zach Henson, Victoria Henson and Katrina Rute Lynn.  For the last twenty-eight years Royce and Jody have operated their business, Lawn Salon.  Royce was able to mow once this season and he really enjoyed it.  Jody enjoys it too and is taking care of three lawns herself these days.   For several years in a row, he and family members made the “Walk of Ages” tracing the path all the way from Cold Springs, down past the old home place, to Champion to attend the Champion School Reunion.  Covid has interfered with the school reunion the last couple of years, but Jody is hoping it will happen again this year just because Royce always loved it.  He and Jody made the trip from their home in Springfield for every Champion School Reunion, for the Champion Spring Flings and The Pioneer Heritage Festivals. He loved being a Champion.  He brought about twenty of his family members to Champion to celebrate his 80th birthday.  It was a blast, finishing up with a trip to Rockbridge.  His brother, Hovey, and his wife, Dawn, along with Jody and Valli, enjoyed another lunch at Rockbridge on Wednesday after having visited the Historic Emporium on the North side of the Square in Downtown Champion–Looking on the Bright Side!