Champion News

The aproach of Spring in Champion.

After a soggy few days, to see the sun on Sunday was a joy and anyone who doubts that Spring has arrived must be watching television instead of being out in the beauty of it all.  Lawn mowers will be sputtering for the next few days trying to get caught up and some of the operators of those mowers will complain about the rampant growth when recently they were complaining about having to haul firewood and ashes.  Country living is sublime, most particularly in Champion.

Ms. Collins, of Champion-East (Vanzant) posted a nice picture of Duane and his turkey.  Then Ms. Rodgers sent a picture of her Jim and his turkey for Ruth to show Duane.  A couple of big tom turkeys bring smiles that don’t show up on the photographs because these guys are serious.  Surely, when everyone is looking away the hunters must grin from ear to ear.  There is plenty of reason to be happy.  Turkey season is putting groceries on the table and smiles on faces and feathers in caps.  This week is also staff appreciation week at Skyline School.  There are twenty-three people there every school day doing what does the very best good for our young people….education!  Thank you, every one of you.  Parents and others with a vested interest in the welfare of the children in our quality little rural school are welcome to show your appreciation with treats, supplies or kind words all week, and well, anytime.  Appreciation might boost their spirits.  Mrs. Ryan, teacher, and Mrs. Beth, bus driver, both have birthdays on May 1st.  Eighth grade student, Madison Shearer, will celebrate on the 2nd.  This will be her last year at Skyline and she will move on the next phase of her learning, another adventure.  Another adventurer partying on the 2nd is up in Springfield–Leo’s Grandmother.  She is the grandmother of a number of interesting and talented people and has a great Affinity Estate Sales business.  She knows her stuff.  Champions wish happy days to all you celebrants and to the people who know and love you.

“Take control of your future:  grow your own food, preserve your own food, trade and barter, cook from scratch, save your own seed, become self-sufficient,” says the homesteader on the internet.  It is a great idea and one that captures the desires and imaginations of many who are in the midst of learning how to match their expectations with their relative vigor.  It is exciting to see what some young folks over in Denlow are doing on the place that some people call the ‘pink’ house, though it has not been pink for a long time.  Passing by quickly, because the narrow winding road calls for vigilance, it looks like there is good gardening going on and that there are innovative chicken facilities.  To see an old place revitalized and thriving is an especially positive sight for people who are more accustomed to seeing the old places in decay.  Hopes are that the folks who live there now are well acquainted with the history of the place and the interesting lives and times of the people who grew up there and are now long gone.  “This old house was home and comfort as we fought the storms of life.”

Esther said not to swerve for a squirrel.  Nothing that you can do will affect the behavior of the squirrel.  What will happen will happen, and it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with the squirrel.  Turtles are different.  You can see them from a distance.  They do not move in any kind of erratic way and you generally have time to make a small temporary adjustment in your trajectory to miss them.  They are moving around these days—mating and nesting.  The Missouri Department of Conservation says that there are seventeen kinds of turtles in the state and all but three of them are ‘protected.’  They are no threat to game fish and are beneficial scavengers.  They eat water plants, dead animals, snails, aquatic insects and crayfish.  Box turtles live on land and eat plants.  Our local species of box turtles live an average of 40 to 50 years.  Ethics would dictate that putting a protected box turtle on a fence post or in the crotch of tree in order to add to your turtle shell collection next winter might fall into the category of ‘unethical.’  Ethics are not tricky.  They are just the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior.  It is what your Mother meant when she gave you that stern look and said, “Behave.”

The set list for a Champion musician’s regular Saturday night gig at The Royal Oak in sister-city Edinburgh routinely includes covers of tunes made popular by Hank Williams, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash and others.  One evening recently there was a group of appreciative patrons enjoying the music and the atmosphere for the first time in the iconic establishment.  It was only as they added to the tip jar and made their way out on to the street that the musicians learned that they were Russian.  They look just like everyone else.  It turns out that they are regular people like us.  They just speak a different language and have a different government that is doing no better job of representing its people than the current outfit on this side of the world.  The rhetoric and Machiavellian machinations of so called foreign policy rife with faux-conflict and obfuscation does not translate very well to regular people out here in every-day-land.  It would be easy to close our eyes and say, “Let somebody else worry about all this stuff that does not really have anything to do with us”.  That might be the reason we are in this pickle.  “Where are our pitch forks?”  These days we make our voices heard over the telephone:  The White House (202) 456-1111 or (202) 456-1414, Governor Greitens (573) 751-3222, Roy Blunt (202) 224-5721, Claire McCaskill (202) 224-6154, Billy Long (202) 225-6536.  Jason Smith (202) 225-4404.

Gardeners are getting busy with spring planting and the ticks and chiggers are already out in force.  May Day is coming up so there will be parties going on all around the world.  The much anticipated Champion Spring Fling will happen on the 6th of May.  That is a Saturday.  Things will kick off about 11:00 and there will be good food, good music and the chance to reconnect with old friends and neighbors.  Harley and Barbara will miss it, but the internet had some good pictures of Barbara’s Illinois morels so their friends and family will not feel too bad about it.  Come down to the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek that day for a good time.  Bring your lawn chairs.  Remember that Roger Miller song, “Walking in the sunshine, sing a little sunshine song.  Put a smile upon your face as if there’s nothing wrong.  Think about a good time you had a long time ago.  Think about, forget about your worries and your woes.  Walking in the sunshine, sing a little sunshine song” in Champion—Looking on The Bright Side!

“Music?  Will there be music at the Champion Spring Celebration…the Spring Fling?  Word from those in the know is, “Absolutely—especially if you musicians come and bring your instruments!”  One is planning to bring extra instruments, because there are so many people who play, but have not played in years.  Their guitars are languishing under their beds, gathering not dust, but age.  They might prove to be valuable heirlooms for survivors and heirs, though it is said that an instrument that is not being played might as well be stove wood.  So drag them out, tune them up or borrow one and join the fun on May 6th starting about 11:00 or so.  It will be on a par with that extraordinary happening back in October of 2011, at what was called “Henson’s Grand Reopening.”  A person looking on www.championnews.us can find pictures of the event by looking under ‘Champion Events’ or under ‘Champion Videos’ to find David Richardson’s excellent recording of the event.  The sound track starts out with “Ashoaken Farewell.”  It is very cinematic.  David is one of those solid citizens, ready to share his talents for every good cause.  Prominent Champions will be cooking, so there will be great food at a nominal cost and great opportunities to reconnect with old friends in a spot that is itself like an old friend–Champion.

Drayson, Carson and Chase in the bleachers.

Wednesday was a red letter day on the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek.  Emma had never been to Missouri, so in the company of native, Don Dooms, she was initiated into the charms and foibles of Booger County.  They lingered a spell and are now ambling their way west through Oklahoma and on out to Arizona before heading north to Idaho for an approximate arrival on May Day.  Don allows as how there are no ticks up there.  (Note to TCN:  fact-check that.)  Harley and Barbara were home for a little while and it was lovely to see them resting on the wide veranda and reconnecting with friends and lots of family at the old home place.  Barbara was under the weather and friends hope the trip to Champion helped her feel better.  Vivian Floyd enjoyed the day at the Historic Emporium together with her son and his wife, and their little dog.  One of Skyline’s new school board members frequents the Emporium any day of the week.  She has her finger on the pulse of the community.  Charlie Lambert has not been in the neighborhood for a while.  Maybe he will make it back for the Spring Celebration.  Meanwhile, his brother was busy sharing mushrooms with the Preeminent Champion.  Wes said that he found mushrooms under sycamore trees this year and that they seemed to be a little higher up on the hills.  Tensions ran high on the horseshoe pitch as Harley and the General teamed up against Lux’s Dad and a fellow who says he is “too blessed to be stressed.”  Final scores were not available, and really the most engaging part of the scene was the audience.  Drayson, Carson and Chase sat in the bleachers in rapt attention.  Ethel of Omo received a compliment in absentia when the unstressed horseshoe player displayed the birthday card he had received from her.  It featured a truck just like his, but with a better paint job.  His remark was that she is always thoughtful in personal ways.  The square was full of cars and trucks and scampering children—another pleasant day, one that is reminiscent of a Saturday back in the 1930s and 40s.

There was another welcome home party for Bob and Mary on Thursday at Vanzant.  It is getting to be a regular thing.  Friday was Bob’s birthday so several folks at the bluegrass jam let loose with that special song for him.  Someone will sing it for Skyline 8th grader, Haley Wilson, and for kindergarten student, Jordan Ellingsworth, on the 23rd.  Third grade student, Shelby Wilson, will celebrate on the 24th.  Eli Johnson is a first grade student with a birthday on the 28th.  Isaam Creed is a 7th grade student rejoicing on the 29th.  Taegan Krider, another first grader, has her birthday on the 30th.  This time of the year people stay in the mood for a party.  Champions and Skyline students and parents are reminded that next Tuesday, the 25th, is the last Tuesday of the month and that means Nannette Hirsch will be at Henson’s Store from 9:00 to 11:00 doing blood pressure checks as a service of the Douglas County Health Department for the citizens of the area.  She will be at the Skyline School the following Tuesday from 8:45 to 10:00.  She is a pleasant person providing a real amenity.  She will surely be at the Champion Spring Celebration/Fling.

Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.  He is 85 years old now and a retired Anglican bishop.  During the 1980’s he became famous as an activist against the policies of apartheid.  He has been given many awards including the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986, and the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2007.  He said, “We will pray for the downfall of the government that misrepresents us.”  National politics has become almost unfathomable and foreign policy something that seems as it is being used as a diversionary tactic to keep the lid on domestic chicanery, collusion and treason.  High minded rhetoric in our own echo chambers helps to relieve some of the anxiousness or perhaps causes some of the anxiousness.  The lofty works of our wonderful free press and media will help us stay informed if we will sample them from various sources.  One of them said the other day, “The truth—we don’t forget the truth—we just get better at lying.”  If you have some concern, address it to our elected representatives.  They work for us.  Some of them are:  The White House (202) 456-1111 or (202) 456-1414, Governor Greitens (573) 751-3222, Roy Blunt (202) 224-5721, Claire McCaskill (202) 224-6154, Billy Long (202) 225-6536.  Jason Smith (202) 225-4404.

The good soaking rains have encouraged the seasonal greening and soon the time of the lilac and dogwood will be over.  Summer is rushing headlong at us.  (Remember the Champion Spring Fling on May 6th around 11:00 a.m.  There will be family, friends and neighbors, good food and music.  Get ready for some fun.)  Ticks and other varmints are already out in force and hummingbird scouts are showing up regularly at local feeders.  The delicate pinks and greens of spring are replacing the gray brush and country homes will soon disappear behind dense foliage.  Enjoy every trip you take this time of the year, even if it is just to the mail box.  Observe carefully.  Come down to the end of the pavement where country roads meet on the banks of Auld Fox Creek.  You will see that a couple of baby squirrels and their mother are now occupying the Behemoth Bee Tree over on the South Side of the Square.  It is just like Sam Cook said, “It’s been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come…” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Champion Spring

Spring is all over us here in Champion with the lilacs, the spirea, tulips, ajuga, hyacinths, the wild phlox and the domesticated creeping phlox, the waning daffodils and narcissus, the red buds, the flowering quince, the wild plumbs, serviceberry, apples, peaches and pears, the dogwoods and the mushrooms!  We are awash in the beauty of nature and grateful for it.  Back during the cold months the Prominent Champion Girlfriend was asked by her beau what she wanted for her birthday and she said, “A Spring Celebration!”  Her birthday has passed and her celebration is on the way– May 6th, a Saturday, about noon on the Square in Downtown Champion.  It will be a community event for Champions far and wide to enjoy.  Everyone is welcome.  There will be fried fish, hamburgers, hot dogs, coleslaw and baked beans and whatever you bring.  Bring a dish, your lawn chairs and your enthusiasm for friends and neighbors in this lovely setting.  It is not a fund raiser, but in keeping with the flair of the charming instigator, it will be a Fun raiser.  Champion!  Y’all come.

Other birthday celebrations these days will be for Dillon Watts on the 12th of April.  He is a Tennessee banjo player and Champion grandson just turning 18—practically grown.  Bob Berry will have his birthday on the 14th.  The folks at Vanzant have been having a party for him and Mary every Thursday since they got home.  Dustin, daddy of Caron and Drayson, shares the 15th (Income Tax Day) with his aunt-in-law, Champion Vivian Floyd, and with G. G. Jones, now over Stockton way (uh huh, uh huh).  These three and Skyline second grade student, Wyatt Lakey, will all be having some big time fun that day.  Wyatt is going to a great school.  They have some new school board members and this week the middle school students are taking a trip to Jefferson City.  There will be no school on Friday or Monday for the Easter holiday.  Mill Pond crawdad queen Olivia Trig Mastin, who lives up in Springfield, will have her birthday on the 16th.  She may be back this summer for another go at it.  Dave Thompson has a birthday on the 17th.  He is being much missed at the Vanzant Jam, hopes are he will be back soon with his Quebec girl singing, “Oh, lost river, now I’m coming back to the potbellied stove where the fire wood’s all stacked.”  On the 19th that great love song, “Is That You, Myrtle?” will go out to Myrtle Harris on her special day.  She has relocated to Seymour but makes it back home from time to time.  Happy Birthday all you Champions!  A wonderful find for music appreciators on the internet are the You Tube videos of Herbie Johnston and his fiddle.  You can see him there with the Possum Trot Bluegrass folks in Willow Springs and with Blue Steel Rail and Bootheel Bluegrass back in 2013.  He knows all the great old tunes and can keep tempo for any wandering amateur.  His fans will be glad when he is through with his day job someday.

Many Champions are old enough to remember Ralph Edwards and “Truth or Consequences,” the popular game show that started out on the radio in about 1940.  It found its way on to television all the way up until the late 1980s.  Truth or Consequences, New Mexico changed its name from Hot Springs back in 1950.  There are still ten commercial hot springs bathing spas there and a fountain, across the street from the post office by the Geronimo Springs Museum, that provides a place for visitors to sit and relax while soaking their feet in the town’s famous hot mineral waters.  Some folks are having a hard time relaxing these days as they contemplate the nature of truth and the consequences of the alternative.  No amount of soaking can soothe the wounds caused by the current serial assaults on truth.  Truth is as vital a part of the civic, social and intellectual culture of the country as justice and liberty.  According to a respected newspaper, “Our civilization is premised on the conviction that such a thing as truth exists, that it is knowable, that it is verifiable, that it exists independently of authority or popularity and that at some point — and preferably sooner rather than later — it will prevail.”  We are dependent on ‘reliable’ sources from a variety of points of view to determine for ourselves what we believe to be true.  Admiral William McRaven was the commander of the Joint Specials Operations Command that captured and killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011.  He had a 36-year career as a Navy Seal and he knows something about what an enemy actually is.  He said recently, “We must challenge the statement and sentiment that the news media is the enemy of the American people.  This sentiment may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.”  He went on to say, “Flaws and all, I believe that the free press is our country’s most important institution.”  The old game show was light=hearted and the consequences were inconsequential and humorous–not so in real life these days.  An Old Champion opines, “What is amazing is that people, whom you may love and care about, can believe the opposite thing that you believe and believe that other thing with the same fervor and sense of conviction and correctness and rectitude as you do.  And, just as you may think of them, they may consider you to be ignorant, ill-informed, lazy, and the product of intellectual depravation, with a complete lack of common sense and no willingness at all to be enlightened.”  She goes on to say that the most dangerous liars are the ones who think they are telling the truth.

Elmer said never eat possum fat, that it is bad and bad for you.  Bear fat, however, is like jelly and you can eat all of it you want.  This information came out as part of a conversation concerning young groundhogs and raccoons and their delectableness.  It also turns out that a tanned groundhog hide cut into thin strips will make excellent shoelaces.  Elmer said good shoe laces could also be made out of a particular kind of eel that lives in Louisiana swamps.  These eels have short little legs, and the shoestrings, if done right, will outlast several pairs of shoes.  Such was the excitement in the meeting room at the Historic Emporium the other day.  Young Chase was conspicuously absent at the Wednesday gathering.  It seems that he has had an ear infection and a Mom with a cold!  They had some farm help show up to give them a rest and, hopefully, they will both be feeling much better soon.  We are reminded that one cannot tell just by looking how another person is feeling.  Often people suffer in silence and put on brave faces and keep their health problems to themselves.  It is a Champion kind of idea to just be kind to everyone.

Feeders are going up in preparation for the arrival of humming birds.  In years past they have arrived on April 23rd, but last year the first scout was seen on April 1st.  They may come in with the Easter bunny.  There is a lot of excitement this time of the year connected with the swift passage of time.  Come down to the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek any time, but put May 6th on your calendar for sure.  You will be in excellent company celebrating Spring, “Where the mockingbird is singing in the lilac bush…” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Champion Deer

Sam Walter Foss was an American poet who passed away at the age of 53 in 1911.  He wrote, “Let me live in a house by the side of the road where the race of men go by.  They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong, Wise, foolish—so am I.  Then why should I sit in the scorner’s seat, or hurl the cynic’s ban?  Let me live in my house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.”  There are five verses to the poem and they all make Champions feel good about being in this tranquil part of the world.  Be advised, however, that those houses will soon be disappearing into the woods again.  Mailboxes will be the clue that just out of sight are families and old retired people and solitary individuals, comfortable in their new seclusion.  It is a glorious time of the year with flowering trees and all the tender greens filling the spaces in the gray brush.  Champions appreciate the beauty of home and the reputation of being a friendly bunch, though the Prominent Citizen felt snubbed when an Old Champion drove by him on the road the other evening, engrossed in her thoughts and failed to see him.  Perhaps she will endeavor to be more alert, and he, a little less sensitive.

Travelers through the countryside in the early evenings this time of year are often rewarded with the sight of deer out in fields and frequently crossing the roads.  These handsome creatures are on the move year round and vigilance by motorists is a requirement for a safe arrival.  Sharon Tate Williamson said that she and Harold drove down home to Booger County the other day to see the redbuds and they were absolutely beautiful.  They went to Ava and on to Champion and Drury.  They were headed to Rockbridge to have a fresh trout sandwich, but at Gentryville there was a sign that said the road was closed six miles ahead.  She was told that the low water bridge over Bryant Creek was under water, so they missed their treat.  They just live up in Springfield so maybe they will make it back down this way soon.  Had they been to the Historic Emporium on Wednesday, they might have had the chance to visit with Don Dooms and his charming companion as they pause in the area on their way from their winter home in Arizona to their summer home in Idaho, where Don says there is currently still five feet of snow.  They may linger on the Bright Side a while, then meander through Oklahoma to fish for a spell before heading north.

The Cold Spring Store is now just a pile of decaying lumber with brush growing up through it.  The old log house of the Coffman family up on 76 is rapidly disintegrating.  Once there are holes in the roof it does not take long for the whole thing to go.  Orville’s beautiful old barn is now providing a roosting spot for buzzards and the walls are starting to sag.  It is sad to see the old buildings disappear and with them the memories of the people who built and occupied them and the events that occurred in and around them.  The landmarks of previous generations are being lost, particularly to those Champions without deep roots of family history in these parts.  While change is the only constant and changes are inevitable, let us not always consider that they are necessarily improvements.  Simpler times are often thought to have been better, and certainly some were undeniably better.  Still, the nostalgia that we feel for the past may, in part, just be that we were young and strong.  Many an old age pensioner (OAP) yet thinks the 1957 Chevy/Ford/whatever was the best car ever made.  How lovely it would be to again sit with Cletus Upshaw and to hear his stories of this part of the world and to hear his laugh.  Deward Henson used to call Champion the Village and he was the inspiration for our motto:  “Looking on the Bright Side!”  Deward’s daughter continues his optimism—doing ‘no better-no worse,’ and enjoying her new situation in Ava.

In response to the recent proposed deregulation of the coal industry and the proposed opening up of federal land and federal park lands to coal mining and oil production, an Old Champion suggested a song for the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam.  The fiddler said he was not old enough to know the song—“The Dream of the Miner’s Child.”  She said, “Go down to the village and tell all your dear friends that as sure as the bright stars do shine, something is going to happen today.  Please, Daddy, don’t go to the mine.”  Well, it is said that there are more jobs available in sustainable power—solar and wind–now than in the petroleum industry.  It is also suggested that coal country has the infrastructure suitable to all kinds of manufacturing—good rail transportation in and out and plenty of people who need jobs.  Uncles who worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps back before they joined the service always talked about what wonderful things they built and the friendships they fostered and the help it was to their desperate families back in the Great Depression.  They were farm boys, used to hard work.  These days it might be a challenge to find young people willing to do physical labor, particularly in the mood of the country with such uncertainty.  In those old days there was a sense of camaraderie and of everyone working for the good of all.  These are confusing times.  The peaceful, prayerful activist who worked unsuccessfully to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline are being treated as ‘terrorists.’  They are native to the land, and struggled to protect their water, their heritage, and the land ceded to them by the United States Government in the Treaty of 1868.  Many of those whose land is being threatened now by the Keystone Pipeline in Nebraska are white.  Reckon they will be considered ‘terrorists’ when they protest?  If you have a bone to pick with our government, do it by phone, post card, or e-mail, but do it.  Vote.  Participate in our democracy or we may lose it.  Governor Greitens (573) 751-3222, Roy Blunt (202) 224-5721, Claire McCaskill (202) 224-6154, Billy Long (202) 25-6536, Jason Smith (202) 225-4404 and others are anxious for our input. They work for us.

Mushroom fever is running wild through the neighborhood.  Many nice small to medium specimens have been bragged upon and a few shared, they say.  The dogwoods are beginning to show themselves and Sharon’s observations about the red buds were spot on.  Gardeners are getting things going.  The almanacs say that above ground crops can successfully be planted on the 2nd, 3rd, 9th, and 10th.  April’s moon is called the Pink Moon.  It is an exciting time of the year.  Yearling ticks have been making themselves known.  More time is being spent on the wide veranda and the industry of the Preeminent residents who go about tidying their landscapes does not go without notice.  Come down to the lovely place for a break from your dreary speculations or look in on it at www.championnews.us.  “I never knew the charm of spring/Never met it face to face/I never knew my heart could sing/Never missed a warm embrace/Till April in…”  Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

The old Cold Springs Store

A Sunday swarm of children enjoy the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.

The idea of having to mow the yard before the first of April is circulating through Champion.  “Surely,” they say, “this is an April Fool’s joke!”  No joke—things are greening up and growing.  There is, however, something about the time of year, as we turn from winter to spring, that lends itself to lighthearted celebrations.  Many different cultures have had days of foolishness around the start of April since the time of Constantine who lived from about the year 288 to 337.  Some people think it all started with some aggravation about switching calendars, from the Julian to the Gregorian, in 1582.  Whatever the beginnings of it, a little spring time silliness is certainly acceptable in Champion.  In keeping with the spirit, and with the mode o day, a Champion lie is being hatched—concocted, if you will.

Don Bishop’s birthday was March 23rd and that is the truth.  It turns out that his name really is Don and not Bob.  He was introduced to visiting Texas grand girls as Bob by a clearly distracted Grannie—sorry Don.  They learned his real name before they left the store that day.  Charming Judie of Tar Button wild black bear fame also celebrates on March 23rd.  It seems that The Champion News has always celebrated her in February.  She is well worth a second party.  Among the special birthdays to celebrate soon is that of journalist Rachael Maddow, political commentator and author.  She was born April 1, 1973.  She earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in politics (University of Oxford, 2001) and uses it to help make sense of current events.  Jhonn Rhodes is a student at Skyline School.  He is making sense out of the second grade and also celebrates on April 1st.  He and Rachael may always have trouble making people believe that is really their birthday.  It is a funny holiday.  Miranda Cannucci is a 4th grade student with birthday on the 3rd.  That is also the day that Skyline’s Book Fair starts.  It will go on until the 7th.  Larissa Pendergrass, first grade student, celebrates on the 6th.  Muffins with Mom will happen that day at the school so it will be a good day for Larissa.  Bud Hutchison will have his birthday on April 8th.  It may be a big one, but Bud is young at heart.  Spring seems to be here early; maybe he will have his Spring Trail Ride early.  Nannette Hirsch with the Douglas County Health Department will be at Skyline early on the 4th.  That is the first Tuesday of the month and the day she always shows up to do blood pressure checks as a service to the community.  She is there from 8:45-10:45 in the morning.  She comes to Champion on the last Tuesday of the month.  She may be there in time to help fabricate the great Champion lie.  She is certainly a lighthearted, positive individual up for fun.

Revisiting The Champion News from a decade ago we find the following:  “’If you cough, sneeze, sigh, or yawn, do it not loud but privately; and speak not in your yawning, but put your handkerchief or hand before your face and turn aside.’  That is the fifth rule that George Washington copied (in his own hand) out of the list of 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.’”  There was also a reference to Ben Franklin who used the pseudonym Richard Saunders to write Poor Richard’s Almanack.  He printed up to 10,000 copies per year of between 1732 and 1758, providing his readers with seasonal weather forecasts, practical household hints, puzzles, amusements and insightful aphorisms.  An axiom appropriate to these days is “A Slip of the Foot you may soon recover, but a Slip of the Tongue you may never get over.”  Important things going on these days would be amusing if they were not so dire.  It will take a young person to be able to look back on this period of history fifty years hence and make sense of it.  There is optimism inherent in such a thought…that sense can be made of it.

Welcome home to Mary and Bob!

Good thoughts that come from music can go a long way to making things better.  To be distracted from your ailments and worries is a gift.  Champion grandson Foster Wiseman is taking mandolin lessons and is active in a regular jam of his young contemporaries up in Springfield.  His Champion grandfather would be pleased that the tradition is being carried on.  There was a welcome home party for Bob and Mary at Vanzant on Thursday evening, and they are so welcome that there will be another party next Thursday.  Seventeen musicians and a nice bunch of music appreciators made a lively evening.  Some of the good thoughts from the recent jam include lyrics that say, “I’m free as the breeze and I’ll do as I please.”  “I thought I heard you calling my name.”  “It’s a shame that all the blame is on us women.”  “Each day I’ll do a golden deed by helping those who are in need.”  “Down the road from me there’s an old holler tree.”  “I’m working on a building.”  “Make the world go away.”  “Life gets mighty hard in the gravel yard making little rocks out of big rocks all day.”

Things are being hard for folks in Nebraska as they say they have beaten the Keystone Pipeline before and they will do it again.  “We will never allow an inch of this foreign steel pipeline carrying foreign tar sands that can pollute our water and take away property rights and threaten treaty rights of tribes here in Nebraska.  We will not allow that to happen,” says Jane Fleming Kleeb.  The project that has been given the green light again and the justification for it is that it will make lots of jobs and will promote the energy independence of the United States.  Some say that there will be as few as 35 permanent jobs created after the construction.  As to energy independence, the reality is probably that the refined products will be exported.  These struggles will continue.  Environmentalists will be lauded as heroes and scorned as crackpots.  Corporate interests do not seem to be concerned with the welfare of the population.  Address your concerns with your law makers and elected representatives.  Governor Greitens (573) 751-3222, Roy Blunt (202) 224-5721, Claire McCaskill (202) 224-6154, Billy Long (202) 25-6536, Jason Smith (202) 225-4404—their job is to listen to you and to work for your best interests.

Rough winter is departing and the spring rains are bringing lush growth to make the countryside glorious again.  On the wide, wild and wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek the days pass gently and evenly as if these were ordinary days.  Neighbors meet neighbors and commerce is brisk in the lovely Recreation of the Historic Emporium.  Children play on the wide veranda.  Foster and Kalyssa, Drayson and Carson, and Chase were in a sprightly swarm on the store’s steps on Sunday.  Bees are seen in upper stories of the Behemoth Bee Tree again.  Visitors, hungry for the nostalgic comfort of home or a place like home, take their photographs, make their purchases and then depart for the big dreary elsewhere.  The big lie in Champion is that we are depressed.  April Fool! –Looking on the Bright Side!

Champion Spirea

The most anticipated day has finally arrived at 5:29 a.m.  Is it spring?  It feels like spring.  If it is indeed so, the Prominent Girlfriend is truly happy.  She has already been wearing her flip flops.  Some Champion gardeners were able to get their potatoes planted before St. Patrick’s Day, which is said to be ideal in this part of the world.  On Wednesday, The General led Charlie’s brother, Thomas’s grandpa, the Flint Knapper and Reba’s sweetheart in an investigative study of various natural materials provided by Deward’s granddaughter.  The Flint Knapper identified the tree section as, most likely, black locust, which he says makes excellent bows.  The other item of interest was a short section of a slender sprout, about two feet, wrapped about in serpentine circuitousness by a similar sized vine dried the same color as the stem around which it twined.  Wisteria or trumpet vine?—that was the question.  The General opined with aplomb if not expertise, “Probably not wisteria if it is looped counter clock-wise.”  Champions appreciate his gravitas.  Surreptitious plans were being forged for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade slated for Friday.  Friday, however, turned out to be such a pretty day that the parade did not happen.  Everybody was about his own business, but humming “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” and “Danny Boy.”

Many folks in this part of the world are of Irish or Scots-Irish lineage.  Elmer Banks will tell you about his heritage with an Irish grandmother, a Scottish one and an Englishman in the mix.  A Champion great grandmother was brought here from Ireland as an infant.  She is now buried out in West Texas and has a hoard of descendants to remember her—Sarah Brady was her maiden name.  She was part of the one million Irish immigrants that arrived on these shores back in the mid-19th century.  The Potato Famine killed a million Irish and a million emigrated.  In part, the famine was caused by the potato blight, but the key factor was in the way the government handled the problem.  There are books written about the situation, the gist of which is that in addition to the fundamental failure of the English government programs, workhouses, public works, and soup kitchens tended to concentrate the people into larger groups and tighter quarters.  This allowed the main killer of the Famine, disease, to do its evil work.  The greed of absentee landlords and the repeal of The Corn Laws, which had been of some protection of farmers all contributed to this great calamity.  As a nation which seems to be in a rapid retreat from civility and empathy, the lesson of the Potato Famine is one to consider and one that can be applied to current circumstances.  The Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, for example, has a reputation for siding with corporate interests against individuals as a matter of course.  He made some statements recently that would make it seem that he is not in lock step with the current administration, but speculation is that this is a guise to make his visage more acceptable to the opposition.  How many times in recent years have we thought of Ray Charles singing, “The World is in an Uproar—danger signs are all around”?  Meanwhile, the Indigenous Environmental Network is steady at it in their struggle against the extraction industries and their corporate and fiscal backers as they do what they can to protect the sanctity of their ancestral land, theirs by virtue of binding treaties with the United States Government.  It is an interesting subplot to the drama that is current national and world politics.  Are we entertained?  There is another wonderful song applicable to these times by Pete Seeger’s sister Peggy called “The Song of Choice.”  It goes, “Close your eyes.  Stop your ears.  Hold your tongue.  Take it slow.  Let others take the lead and you bring up the rear and later you can say you didn’t know.”

The General’s fair daughter, Elva, will enjoy her birthday on the 23rd.  Great nephew, Jack Masters, down in Austin, may be about sixteen years old on the 27th.  Special people at Skyline School are also due celebrations that day.  Mrs. Downs teaches third grade and Mr. Ted drives a bus.  The 28th will be the big day for first grade student Joseph Fulk and the 30th for prekindergarten student Tucker Johnson.  Skyline Tigers roar, “Happy Birthday!”  Over in Fair Edina, Gordon Reynolds will be celebrated on the 22nd and Bobby Nicholson on the 29th and lovely Morag Edward on the 31st.  They are all talented, creative people–musicians and artists—making the world a sweeter place.

A Champion granddaughter asked her mother why anyone would eat margarine when she could have butter.  Her mom said that so much of what we think is bad or good for us depends on our conditioning.  She said that when she was a girl, it was just understood that margarine was preferable for a number of reasons relating to obesity and heart disease.  In recent years explications about the effects of trans-fats and other chemical properties of some margarine make it seem that butter is better.  She pointed out that five years ago coconut oil was considered to be one of the worst things of its kind on the market.  Now it is perceived to be one of the best things.  A shifting view (a shifting base line) brings to mind that Johnny Cash song, “…and the lonely voice of youth cries, ‘What is truth?’”

Here’s Jonnie!

Jonnie is a long legged, big footed, thirty-five pound, boxer/hound mix about two years old.  She is playful, curious, affectionate, and anxious to please.  A couple of old folks who have been by themselves for a number of years are suddenly being amused and called upon for regular interaction with said dog.  Visiting grand-girls made fast friends with her and now that they have gone home, Jonnie is lonesome.  Her howl is plaintiff and makes a person want to join in the song like the sound of a steam train the next ridge over.  Her antics through the day and the process of getting acquainted make the days interesting—certainly things have changed.  Rules will have to be learned.  Who is doing the training, the people or the dog?

Enjoy these warm days and the beautiful blooming things along the roadsides as you make your way down to the broad banks of Auld Fox Creek—the wide, wild and wooly banks, where country roads meet the pavement and where neighbors meet to exchange views, examine natural phenomena and share histories and hopes.  The big clump of old fashioned spirea is blooming flagrant white there by the west entrance to the Square.  On warm days the wide veranda of the Historic Emporium offers a place to sit and ponder.  On cold days the old wood stove offers warmth and comfort as it has for generations in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

The Champion snowman is for the birds!

Wednesday turned out to be a lovely day in Champion.  Spring Break combined with young visiting Tennessee cousins allowed a hoard of Champion youngsters the freedom to romp up and down the steep hill by the church that was once the Champion School.  How many rambunctious young’uns must have struggled up it and then rolled or plunged down that grassy slope over the years!  Some of them are collecting Social Security now.  Used to, a long time ago, they call them Old Age Pensioners.  The raging bull of Champion, now an ‘OAP’, did not make his appearance in the meeting room this Wednesday.  There was no turning over of plastic furniture and titillating of small children with his roaring antics.  Optimism tells Champions that next week will also have a Wednesday.

Friends down at Teeter Creek Herbs post that Hawthorns and Sarvice Berry are the first wild blooming trees in these parts.  There are many varieties of Hawthorns in the area out in the wild and ornamentals in town yards.  “Both the early flowers and young leaves (which emerge together) as well as the ripe berries in the fall are known for their high flavonoid content; nutrition that has been shown to be directed to strengthen the heart muscle.  Studies also show Hawthorn’s ability to control inflammation of the arteries.  The flowers and young leaves and berries can all be carefully dried for a tea or tinctured; the dried ripe berries are traditionally made into syrup.”  The Ozark weather changes are playing havoc with all kinds of things that are budding now with snow in the forecast.  Gardeners will just make adjustments to the new normal (odd/unusual) and will try to keep their eyes from rolling all the way back into their heads like marbles in a mixing bowl, when Oklahoma’s pride, Scott Pruitt, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said right out loud that carbon dioxide does not contribute to warming, global or any other kind.  At the same time they are guffawing and slapping their thighs over that absurdity, some are perplexed and a little put out that the hellbenders in Fox Creek are holding up repair of a bridge out on a county dirt road.  It is unclear if they all need to be caught and counted or relocated, but it will get figured out.  Local environmentalists are as well intentioned and goofy as the next bunch (well, almost as goofy, say as those folks in the Nation’s capital), but they make some good points; like clean water is not just a gift, it is a requirement for life and some life is fragile and fading.  Champions are on the, by gosh, cutting edge of life.

One of Champion’s favorite ‘Hillbillies in Texas’, Suzie Freeman, will be 70 years old on March 13th.  Join the club! She said that Wes has made his 88th truck, including a lavender flat-bed semi for her Christmas present.  He has nine rows of onions out and will be panting the rest of the garden soon.  Other special birthdays include Willow Townsend, prekindergarten student at Skyline School celebrating on the 15th.  She shares the day with a favorite immigrant to Scotland and with his second cousin, Jacob Masters in Austin, thirty years his junior, and the delightful Ursula, mother of Demetri, living on a remote farm on the east coast of Ireland.  Elizabeth Mastrangelo Brown was 23 in 2013 on the 16th of March.  Skyline’s own kind and smiling Ms. Helen celebrates on the 16th and Myla Sarginson, fifth grader at Skyline will have her birthday on the 18th.  Lizzie Heffern, up in Springfield, will have a party on the 18th.  It will be Lizzies Paws for a Cause Party and the donations of pet supplies that party goers will bring will help the dogs and cats in her community.  She is a Champion granddaughter with a big loving heart–giving back.  Happy Birthday all you sweet Champions, near and far.

Suzie Freeman said in her letter that her sister, Wilma Ramos, lived in Blue Ridge, Texas for a while.  Wilma said that Blue Ridge got its name from a ridge just outside of the city that was covered with beautiful blue flowers in every season.  First known as “Pull-n-Tug,” the name was changed to Blue Ridge when the first post office was established in 1860.  William Worden was the first post master there.  Wilma also reports that the Blue Ridge pipeline spill is affecting flow of oil nationwide and that while it is unclear about how much crude oil was spilled, about 4,000 barrels, 168,000 gallons, have been recovered, according to the Texas Railroad Commission.   She said that so far no impact on water has been reported and that a dam is being constructed at the end of the spill path to prevent runoff from entering a nearby creek in case of rain.  Meanwhile, Chase Iron Eyes is a young attorney who grew up on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation and lives there in the small town of Fort Yates with his wife, Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle, and their three children.  Dr. Jumping Eagle oversees the delivery of medical care at the Indian Services hospital.  Iron Eyes was joined by thousands of allies in Washington D.C. this week to tell the world the fight against big extraction and big finance is not over.  “This has just begun,” he said.  He is one of three Native Americans running for office in the next election in oil-rich North Dakota.  Meanwhile, over in Montana, a banjo player and song writer named Rob Quist is running to fill the Montana congressional seat of Ryan Zinke, who was sworn in last week as the new U.S. secretary of the interior.  Quist has folk and bluegrass albums that have made him one of the best known names in politics there.  There is a great youTube of him on the internet singing “Shady Grove.”  His wife, Bonnie, says that his music is quite political and that his song, “.45 Caliber Man,” is one of her favorites.  “It’s going to take a .45 caliber man, meaning it’s going to take somebody with a strong will to stand up for the values of the middle-class America.”   An Old Champion remarked out on the wide Veranda of the Historic Emporium the other day that it would be a good idea if all politicians/law makers/government officials were musicians—bluegrass/classical/jazz/country/rock ‘n roll/etc.—a different caliber of people altogether.

If you are just tickled about how things are going up in Old Jeff (Jefferson City) and Washington D.C., give our law makers a call to let them know.  Everybody appreciates encouragement. The White House (202) 456-1111 or (202) 456-1414, Governor Greitens (573) 751-3222, Roy Blunt (202) 224-5721, Claire McCaskill (202) 224-6154, Billy Long (202) 225-6536.  Jason Smith (202) 225-4404—they will all be glad to hear from their constituents.  In with Suzie’s letter and Wilma’s history of Blue Ridge was a hand full of newspaper clippings, mostly in Spanish concerning current events.  Spanish is a beautiful language spoken by millions of people in the world.  A local suggest, however, that Russian might be the prudent language to learn.  There are lots of sites on the internet that provide instruction.

Texas granddaughters visiting for Spring Break were very excited to see Monday morning’s little dusting of snow, but would have preferred much more.  They opine that country snow is prettier than city snow and were out the door singing, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow….” in Champion—looking on the Bright Side!

Champion daffodils endure the snow.