Champion News

CHAMPION—October 19, 2015

2015 Skyline School Fall Festival More photos…

        Home is where the heart is and to return there after a fortnight’s absence is to walk into the perfect place.  Home–where everything is comfortable and familiar.  “Home,” where some guy said, “if you go there, they’ve got to let you in.”  Home is the most venerated of all human notions.  Champion!

        The Skyline School Fall Festival was a resounding success.  The school parking lot was packed and the school was filled with children, teachers, parents, grandparents and friends—a great evening.  There was royalty—a king and queen, as well as Princess Jaycee Hall and Prince Caleb Barker.  Alyssa Strong was the Queen and it was her grandmother, Lana Hampton, who won the fifty-fifty drawing.  Grandmother Karen Hall won the chili contest.  Her grandchildren are Hailey Hall and Jaycee Hall.  The pie contest was judged by James Brixey, Joshua Strong and Joseph Georges.  There were eight pies entered and each was judged by its appearance and its taste.  It was a difficult choice.  Bridget Hicks won for an apple pie that judges think would be good the year round—an “anytime” pie.  Her prize included a ceramic pie plate and a golden spatula.  She has three sons in school, so the community will probably get to enjoy more of her pies in the years to come.  Jude is a preschool student, Wyatt is in the 5th grade and Levi is a 6th grade student.  The Pumpkin contest was won by Matty Hutsell for an entry called “Matty Spider.”  Go to www.championnews.us to see all the creative entries.  The silent auction had some excellent student art as well as Silver Dollar City tickets and items generously donated by local merchants.  The PTO is already planning ahead for next year.  They will have to go a distance to beat this one.  That is what the Parent Teachers Organization is all about—going the distance to help our children, our greatest resource, get the education they need to have the quality, productive, happy lives we want for them.

        Marty Watts lives way over in Tennessee.  He has a birthday on October 20th, and he is lucky to have birthdays.  Lonnie Krider once said he should have shot Marty the first time he saw him walking up his driveway.  That was just because Marty was there courting Linda.  Now Marty and Linda have grown children.  Cyanna Davis is a sixth grade student at Skyline.  She shares her birthday with Marty.  The 21st was the birthday of Anna Henson (1905-1983), who, with her husband, Edgar Henson (1903-1998), ran the Champion Store for many years.  The Champion News’ correspondent claims the same day as her own and considers herself to be in excellent company.  Mountain Grove’s Randy Abbot, the world’s wonderful Tejana, Cidneye Godkin, and Alfred Nobel are also acknowledged that day.  Alfred Nobel (1801-1872) invented dynamite and made enough money off of it to finance the Nobel Prize every year.  Amazing.  Donna Moskaly is an award winning artist who has been living in Champion for about a decade now shares her birthday with Skyline students, 1st grader Haylee Surface and Talia Mancia, 8th grader.  Ms. Beth is a cook at Skyline and will be celebrating on the 22nd.  Thomas Wyatt is in the 8th grade and will celebrate on Friday the 23rd.  Happy birthday to Breauna Krider (Mother of Taegan and Lux) and Sandy Chapin (grandfather of Atticus) on the 24th and to Roger Miller on the 25th (1936-1992).  He wrote and sang, “You can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you’ve a mind to.  All you got to do is set your mind to it.  Set your mind to it and do it!  Do it!  Do it!”  That is sage advice.

        Champions note that a few garden things have been quite chilled but there has not yet been a frost.  A little fire in the morning is feeling good as some of those heavier clothes come out of the back of the closet.  The foliage seems to be changing from moment to moment and flurries of activity to get ready for the coming cold manifest themselves in a variety of ways.  The garden is giving its last fruit; the woodshed is filling up; various repairs and improvements are suddenly racing with the season for completion.  It is an exciting time of the year.  Linda’s going out of business sale is going well.  There are lots of great bargains to be had and a chance to wish Linda all the best in her ‘retirement.’  Her sale will go on through the end of the month.  Hardworking people rarely stop working at retirement.  It is a given that she will stay busy.  Her Champion friends hope that she will be able to work in a few more bridge games.  Meanwhile, they will enjoy with her the anticipation of a new epoch.

        “Worry pretends to be necessary, but serves no useful purpose.”  That observation was made by Eckhart Tolle.  Another person said that worry is a kind of negative prayer.  It is hard not to worry when there seems to be so much stress and negativity in the world.  Fortunately there are a few places in the this realm where people can gather to discuss their concerns, compare and draw on histories for help with current issues, exchange meaningful views with one another and offer encouragement.  Such a place is found in the meeting room of the Recreation of the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  Any day is fine, but Wednesdays seem to be prime for a meeting of like minds (as well as polite dissidents).  Enjoy these beautiful autumn days with another of Roger Miller’s refrains:  “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!

THE NEW WORLD OF 1492—October 12, 2015

The New World

        “The Indians are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no.  To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone.  They would make fines servants…With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”  Those are words written to Queen Isabella by Christopher Columbus way back when.  The holidays dedicated to Columbus all over the ‘new’ world are celebrated in a variety of ways—some with joyful fervor and some with a new appreciation for the actual history of events.  That kind of history is hard to come by, that is to say, it takes some effort to plow through the centuries of sanitizing and glossing over of the unpleasantness (atrocities and genocide) that allows us to feel good about our past.  In Champion people do not deny that bad things have happened before and they have no fear of working to make things better in the future.  It is the Champion way.

        Folks who happened to be around for Bud Hutchison’s Fall Trail Ride were treated to some unusual sights.  The photographs shared on the internet show about a dozen well mounted, good looking equestrians in front of the store together with a couple of two wheeled carts.  One of the carts was hitched to a nice looking horse.  It had big yellow wheels that looked like they could have been made by Dale Thomas over there on the Edge of the World.  It also looked like Cowboy Jack was on the Square checking out the rig.  (His profile is unique.)  The other cart seemed to have bicycle wheels with red fenders and was harnessed up to a little white pony—very cute.  Another photograph showed that little cart bringing up the rear as the bunch moved up the hill to commence the ride.  The pictures were posted by the Douglas County Foxtrotting Horse Breeders Association.  It is a fortunate spot in the world where sights like this can be seen—where technologies from the distant past merge so beautifully into the present day.  Champions are blessed.

Pictured from left to right are: Jack Coonts, standing, holding horse, and Steve Assenmacher, from McClurg, in large cart; Don Hamby, Dora; Ronnie Leroy, Dora; Mary Leroy, Dora; Sean Huffman, Seymour; Bob Wheeler, Ava; Andrew Harden, Ava; Carmen Watchinshe, Rogersville; Gene Dunn, Protem; Howard Price, Ava; Bud Hutchison, Ava; Raymond Johnson, Ava; Cindy Huffman, Seymour and Frank Williams, Smallett, with pony cart.
Bud Hutchison’s 2015 Fall Trail Ride

    Good news comes from the Skyline PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) that The Fall Festival will be held October 16th at the school from 6:00 to 9:00 in the evening.  This a great chance for the community to get to visit the wonderful little school that is serving the children of the area so well.  There will be lots of game booths.  The Brushy Knob Church will have a putt put golf booth and a wheel spin; CTA will have a pumpkin decorating contest and a ball bounce; YEP will have a bounce house and cotton candy; Archery/8th grade will have a cake walk and 50/50 drawing; Kindergarten will have a pumpkin pond and a guessing game of how many candy corns in a container; the first grade will have a lollipop tree and the 4-H will have a ‘make a candle jar’ for people to enjoy.  Additionally, local businesses are providing items for a silent auction and the PTO will have two one-day admission tickets to Silver Dollar City to put on the auction block.  This is one of the great events of the school year.  There will be a chili contest and a pie contest and more excitement than usual for a quiet country neighborhood.  New arrivals to the area and old folks who have grandchildren in distant places will enjoy the chance to be surrounded by all the youthful enthusiasm.  Organizers say that anyone with something good to share can donate it to the silent auction.

        The bees will be glad to know that the Federal appeals court ruled in favor of beekeepers striking down the EPA’s approval of neonicotinoid insecticide, sulfoxaflor, produced by Dow.  The court cited the “precariousness of bee populations: and “flawed and limited data” submitted by Dow on the pesticides’ effects on beleaguered pollinating insects.  The agrichemical industry, as a whole, seems flawed and hopes are that the EPA will start protecting people and the environment instead of the profits of Dow, Monsanto, Syrgenta, Dupont, Bayer and BASF.  A beekeepers visiting in Champion recently was much impressed by the Behemoth Bee Tree on the south side of the Square.  It is a rare occasion to see wild bees in their home environment.  He has asked to be kept informed about the colony and was as delighted by their resilience.  He speculated that the ‘trimming’ of the tree must have been a dicey affair and, like others, would have loved to have witnessed it.

        Bonnie Brixey Mullens and Pete are celebrating 60 years of marriage.  They are two very nice people.  The date was October 7th and Pete had his birthday on the first of October so chances are they have been in party mode for a while.  Friends and family have been steadily wishing them happiness and good luck in the future as do their friends at The Champion News.  Keedien Smith is a preschool student at Skyline with a birthday on the 15th of October—the same day as Joe Moskaly, who is quite a bit older.  Olivia Prock is a seventh grader there celebrating on the 16th.  Darlene Connor and Carson Cline share the 18th as their birthday, though this one is a first for Carson.  Facebook will have us to believe that Atticus’ grandmother celebrates her birthday on October 12th.  Was the year really 1949?  This is the spot where the swift passage of time might be remarked upon again, though it seems like that comes up more and more often.  John Prine had his birthday on the 10th.  He wrote many great songs including “Paradise”, “Dear Abby” and “Grandpa Was a Carpenter.”  “Grandpa was a carpenter.  He built houses, stores and banks.  (He) chain smoked Camel cigarettes and hammered nails in planks.  He was level on the level and shaved even every door and voted for Eisenhower ‘cause Lincoln won the war.”

        In 1938 President Roosevelt said, “Let us not be afraid to help each other—let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us.  The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a president and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.”  A French philosopher who was born in 1694 said, “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”  It is easy to register to vote and easy to vote in Douglas County.

        J.C. Owsley has been on a big ramble around the country up through New England and Pennsylvania.  Maybe he visited Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.  When last seen, he was at the World War II Memorial in Washington.  It will be interesting to read his observations.  Another old Champion has been strolling the beach on the Gulf of Mexico at sunset getting sand in her shoes and a sense of renewal with the tide.  Waves lap relentlessly on the shores of the world even when no one is there to see them come and go.  Homecoming will be the high point of the week, seeing loved ones and the beauty of autumn in the Ozarks.  They say the foliage will be magnificent this year because of the wet spring and summer.  Seasons change.  They come and go—one more beautiful than the last in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

RIO BRAVO—October 5, 2015

2015 Pioneer Descendant’s Gathering

        Reports are that beautiful weather, if dry, is the mode in Champion these days.  Mornings want a little fire just to take the chill off though frost is not yet on the pumpkin.  Already colors are changing and soon every traveler through the area will be dazzled.  Bud Hutchison’s Fall Trail Ride through town on Wednesday is sure to be/to have been a pleasant trip.  The regular Wednesday confab at the Recreation of the Historic Emporium will have been augmented by saddle tramp stories and the wanderers improved by the regulars—shop keepers, farriers, carpenters, farmers, friends and neighbors.

        A little get-away from time to time (even from the paradise of Champion) can be beneficial.  Those things that we take for granted look more wonderful at home coming.  Lannie Hinote has just taken a nice little weekend trip to Anchorage from her Mountain Village and posted some extraordinary pictures of the Brooks Mountain Range from the air.  She mentioned earlier that she had very much enjoyed the full moon pictures that her friends a posted on the internet.  She said that it was still daylight there when the eclipse occurred and then it was too cloudy to see anything after dark.  It had snowed for three straight days.  “You would think it is winter.”  She said the snowflakes are huge.  Her friends here miss her but are excited for her to be having this great adventure.  It is a gift that she will share it with the folks back home.  Meanwhile, another Champion is off to the beach in South Texas and then on a jaunt to see granddaughters who have been growing at a rapid rate since the old girl saw them last.  They will spend Columbus Day together and Grannie will be satisfied for a while.

Children of all ages having fun

        The Pioneer Descendant’s Gathering is reported to have been another sterling success.  It was cool enough to make some wish they had worn heavier sleeves, and the cooking fires and molasses, lye soap and apple butter making were popular for more than their intrinsic interest.  The Sunday crowd was a little late in coming but they showed up in force.  The music was great as was all the food that came out of the big white tent in the middle of the field.  There were more people camping than in previous years and more wagons and horse drawn farm equipment on display.  Foster and Kalyssa’s mother kindly posted a number of interesting photographs that show lots of children gallivanting around in the midst of having a wonderful time and making memories that will last a life time.  The General said that he saw people there that he had not seen for four or five days.  He said that he had unsuccessfully struggled to avoid a certain self-proclaimed versifier from an unincorporated community southeast of Wasola.  The Pioneer Gathering is an event open to all so they probably could not keep him out.  Friends missed Bob Berry and Mary and hope to see them back this way one day soon.  When Betty and Dale are rested up they will be plied for details about who won the wonderful Elk Gathering quilt, attendance and the like.  Oh, Pioneers!

        William Tucker Clark could have been born on his old grandfather’s birthday if he had waited one day.  William arrived on the 2nd of October.  His old grandpa celebrates on the 3rd.  As of the 4th, twin Upshaw girls are significantly older than some of their friends.  Betty Dye and Vicki Trippie have the 7th as their special day and Skyline 5th grader, Draven Koepke, will party on the 9th—that is a special day known by some as the ‘ninth of ‘Tober.’  Madelyn Ward was born October 10, 2006.  Steve Connor has the 11th as his birthday and who knows how old he might be.  (That is not a question so much as an exclamation.)  Cathy Baldwin, Jill Hall and Leslie Krider all celebrate on the 14th together with William Tucker Clark’s sweet young grandma, Eva.

Oh! Pioneers!

        The Bluegrass Jam happens every Thursday at the Vanzant Community Building.  There is a potluck dinner at six and then the music starts.  Everyone is welcome to attend—to bring your instruments, your talent, and your love of music.  Participate in making it or just sit back and enjoy it.  The General said that there were enough musicians last week that he did not have to play.  There cannot be too many musicians.  The String Project in Ava is a program working toward keeping the area rich in music and musicians.  Bob Holt is still much admired for having propagated the love of the fiddle.  Anyone who has an old fiddle sitting quiet and idle is welcome to donate it to the project.  Contact Barbara Deegan at Ava High School.  They say that every time a fiddle becomes available there is a child ready to learn to play it.  Bob Holt would be proud.  An instrument that is not being played might as well be stove wood–no use having it hang on the wall collecting dust and cobwebs.

        Champions are busy getting the last of the garden in—a few more beans and black eyed peas stored up against the winter.  Up in Norwood Linda is having a half-price sale for the whole month of October on everything at The Plant Place and The Gift Corner.  There are some tremendous bargains to be had and Linda will have more time to play bridge.  Old Champions are getting the firewood in and will be hauling ashes soon.  The seasons are slipping by quickly.  Maybe the cold weather will give people more time to idle at home, to linger in quiet reflection, practice “Coleen Malone,” or to travel down to the city center to socialize and become enlightened.  When asked what surprised him most about humanity the Dalai Lama answered, “Man sacrifices his health in order to make money.  Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.  And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

        Come down to the wide, wild, wooly banks of Old Fox Creek to report what surprises you most about humanity.  Say goodbye to summer out on the wide veranda and figure that the bees in the Behemoth Bee Tree on the South Side of the Square will be just fine in the seasons ahead.  Go to www.championnews.us to see a good example of how a good community really lives.  Get ready to sing, “The autumn leaves drift by my window….” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—September 28, 2015

Super Moon over Sister City, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

Totally Eclipsed Harvest Moon

        Moon watching parties were all the rage in Champion and around the world on Sunday night.  Images from Great Britain, from the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire, from the Rabbit Ears formation near Sedona, Arizona and from Lannie Hinote up in Mountain Village, Alaska filled the internet and revealed the big luminous orb in its fullness, disappearing a bite at a time only to reemerge in bloody garb which was then sluffed off altogether as the moon moved on its regular course through the dark night sky.  No light pollution interfered with a clear viewing in Champion and the clouds that had lingered over the area for the previous two days seemed to dissipate on cue.  “Wow,” was a standard comment in Champion together with the questions wondering how ancient peoples might have responded to such dramatic celestial events if they had no forewarning.

The Bee Tree

        A bee keeper from Texas has been in town for a few days enjoying the quiet country life and examining the magnificent Champion Bee Tree on the South side of the Square.  His studies have told him that before bees move into a hollow tree they first clean it free of all debris, sawdust, insects and the like.  They then line the entire space with glue or varnish called propolis (named from the Greek pro—before and polis-city) which they manufacture from sap collected from the growing buds of trees and other plants.  As they set up housekeeping they build exactly 4.83 hexagonal wax cells per square inch (maximizing available space) to use for storing honey and raising their family.  There is local speculation about the age of our tree (probably more than 200 years) but no exact date for when the bees took up residence.  They are such good neighbors; they may have been there for a long time before they were noticed 30 or more years ago.  Hopes are that the new growth which sprouted atop the colossal walnut stump (First Base to Champion School alumni) will continue to grow to provide some shade for the colony next summer.  The relatively cool and wet summer this year may have contributed to its survival after the so called ‘pruning.’  Look for regular updates on the Champion Bee Colony at www.championnews.us.

        Helen Batten at the Skyline R2 School reminds readers that the Douglas County Health Department will be at the school from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. on the first Tuesday of the month to do blood pressure checks.  It was a grant from the DCHD that is responsible for the lovely quarter mile walking trail just south and a little to the west side of the school.  It is a paved trail skirting the edge of the woods, going down toward the fire department picnic grounds and back up around the new greenhouse.  School Superintendent Jeanie Curtis says that all residents in the area are welcome to use the trail.  It is a nice regular surface suitable for older folks to navigate safely.  Four times around will make a mile and enough walking will keep a person healthy.  Ms. Batten also provides The Champion News with birthdays of students and staff at Skyline.  October starts off with Ms. Brixey, prekindergarten teacher and second grade student Lydia Harden celebrating on the 1st.  Malachi Fulk is in the third grade and has his birthday on the 4th.  Former Skyline students, Fae and Kaye, share that day with Malachi and then the 7th is the birthday of Skyline Auxiliary President Betty Dye.  Wishes are for happy days to all of them and to those shy people born on September 30th and October 1st who decline to be recognized.  To them we say, “Remember, if you act like you are having a good time, soon you will forget that you are acting and you will really be having a good time.”  Cathie Alsup Reilly had her birthday on September 27th.  She lives over in Tennessee but is a regular visitor to Denlow where she had a good time exhibiting her hula hoop prowess last Memorial Day.  She indicated in an email that someone had made off with her hula hoop recently, so she might have to borrow one from Ms. Quiet Timber when she is next in town.

        Dale and Betty Thomas will host the Pioneer Descendants’ Gathering on the week end down at Yates on the Edge of the World.  There will be a church service there from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. on Sunday.  The event starts at 10:00 on Saturday and both days will be full of music, all kinds of demonstrations, good food and the chance to see old friends who will come smiling at you across the meadow.  The Champion News is asking Sami McCleary, Tanna Wiseman, Sherry Bennett and everyone who will to post many pictures and observations on Facebook for the benefit of unfortunates who will not be able to attend this year.

        There was good attendance in the meeting room of the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion on Wednesday.  The General had just blown into town from Wyoming and spent some time avoiding questions.  Someone said, “I know who robbed the Rockbridge Bank!”  Groucho Marx said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”  In the 1932 comedy, ‘Horse Feathers,’ he sang, “I don’t know what they have to say/ It makes no difference anyway/ Whatever it is, I’m against it/ No matter what it is or who commenced it/ I’m against it/  Your proposition may be good/ But let’s have one thing understood/ Whatever it is, I’m against it/  And even when you’ve changed it or condensed it/ I’m against it….”  It sounds very appropriate for today’s political situation.  There was a movie with James Stewart called “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” that also is reminiscent of today’s circumstances.  Circumstances with current Mr. Smiths are ambiguous amid federal investigations as to use of tax money for political junkets and lavish vacations.  Come down to the wide, wild, wooly, welcoming banks of Old Fox Creek to express your opinion, speculation, doubts or amazement.  Share those things, your stories, poetry and songs at champion@championnews.us or at The Champion News, Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  Get a look at the Behemoth Bee Tree down on the Square or on line at www.championnews.us where the complete and unedited version of these remarks can be found…almost like a visit to Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—September 21, 2015

The West Plains Wagon Club and the Gee Haw Wagon Club pause the wagon train in Champion for lunch and for
admirers to get a closer look. Locals visiting the wagon train are Royce Henson talking with Vernon Crow under
the Champion Bee Tree. Joyce Coonts is taking Cowboy Jack’s picture with wagon-master Coy Stone.

        The West Plains Wagon Club and the Gee Haw bunch from Viola, Arkansas pulled into town a little earlier in the day than it has in years past.  The eight wagons had set out from West Plains on Monday and made it to Champion about eleven o’clock Thursday morning.  Drivers and passengers all reported beautiful weather and a pleasant uneventful trip.  Clifton Luna has sold his wagons and mules but is still active with the club and enjoyed riding with them for a day on this trip.  At somewhere around the age of 90, Mr. Luna says this is the first time in his life that he has not owned a horse or a mule.  By the time they are home again, this train will have traveled 387 miles in 18 days.  They camped up north of Champion on Thursday and from there were headed to Mansfield, Marshfield, and Diggins, then over to the Glade Top Trail for a couple of days and on to Gainesville and beyond.  The 21st century part of their outfit is a GPS device that gives them their travel speed, elevation, temperature, a map and other things pertinent to the trip.  Cowboy Jack and Joyce Coonts and a few others came out to see the train and visit with the wagon folks.  Royce and Jody Henson traveled from Springfield for the occasion.  Royce rode with Coy Stone in the lead wagon from Champion to Cold Springs—the ‘walk of ages’ in reverse.  Maybe that is the secret to being young at heart.  These travelers are certainly a pleasant, optimistic group of people.  It is a bright spot on Champion’s calendar to have them stop through every year.

        The Starvy Creek Bluegrass Festival in Conway, Missouri was well attended by Champions this year.  Sherry Bennet posted pictures on the internet which depicted a number of favorite area musicians having a good time.  The Upshaw-Krider/Johnston sisters celebrated an early birthday there and enjoyed the show for three nights in a row.  They are probably still patting their feet and grinning.  Their birthday is not until October 4th so they will be celebrating for some while.  Sandy (Grandfather of Atticus) Chapin has a birthday on the 24th of September.  Skyline first grade student, Tristian Jeffrey, celebrates on the 25th.  Sixth grader, Dustin Johnson, parties on the 26th, the same day that Edinburgh’s Graeme Laird will have had his 44th trip around the sun.  The 29th belongs to the lovely Texan, Rebecca Heston, a great supporter of The Champion News.  Someone will celebrate on the 30th, incognito by choice.  Another shy Champion, a prominent one, shares the first of October with preschool teacher, Jana Brixey, and second grader, Lydia Harden.  Third grade student, Malachi Fulk, will have his special day on the 4th with Fae and Kaye.  Penelope Zappler had her birthday on the 21st, but somehow did not get mentioned in The Champion News.  She is a reliable regular summer visitor to Champion and a much loved one.  Have a Champion happy day everyone.

        Beautiful weather looks like it is with us for a while.  Will anyone complain?  The next few weeks will be some of the loveliest of the year and Champions are braced to enjoy every bit of it.  The Pioneer Descendants Gathering will be right in the middle of it with all its excitement.  Molasses and apple-butter, Dutch-oven cooking, and ‘curly taters’ will be some of the fascinating smells and tastes of the gathering.  Dale and Betty Thomas host this event every year to remember ancestors Tom Brown and John Burden, early settlers to this part of the world.  Live music will be provided all day by talented local bands and you are encouraged to bring lawn chairs to sit out under the spacious pavilion to enjoy the show.  There will be much to see and do.  It is going to be fun.  Along about this time of the year Bud Hutchison has a trail ride heading up in Champion and that gang out of Crystal Lake are liable to come ambling through the country any time.  It is a pleasant place in the world when a person can look up to see a string of well mounted riders going by, tipping their hats and smiling.  Wilma says that Bud had a lot work to do getting the mess cleaned up from the storm damage to their barn, but it is all done.  A good carpenter and friend helped to get it all fixed back just right.  She or Bud will have the date of the fall ride posted in Champion before long.

        The parts of local gardens that are doing well are doing very well just now, though a little rain would be timely and beneficial.  Some have stopped picking beans altogether and will just let them dry on the vine.  If beans and potatoes make a complete protein, it is sure Champions will be eating well this winter.  Fall gardening is such a pleasure after the heat of the summer.  It is nice to be out there daydreaming about next year.  Linda will be having a half-price sale all during October as she is taking The Plant Place out of business.  There will be some great bargains.  It has been lovely to have Linda’s expertise all these years to help our thumbs be green.  She was the big winner at the Fortnight Bridge Club game on Saturday.  Perhaps in retirement she will have more time for bridge.

        Macy Loveless is a 12 year old girl in Mountain Grove who is battling leukemia for the second time.  Her friends at school, her family and many in the area are keeping her in their best thoughts with hopes that she will beat it again.  She has a good attitude, a good support system and the good wishes of Champions all over.  Find “Team Macy” on Facebook for a way to help, or just google Macy Loveless and that will get you to a spot where you can make a donation to help with the extraordinary financial costs.

        It was reported that there was a good crowd at the Historic Emporium last Wednesday.  There were a few gaps in attendance, but a fine time happened anyway.  Next Wednesday the absentees will tell what they had to do instead.  Fairly often someone will bring an oddity to show, an interesting tool or device or sometimes an antique firearm.  One never knows.  From time to time politics figure into the conversations.  Politics (from the Greek, “of, for, or relating to citizens”) is the practice and theory of influencing other people and a study or practice of the distribution of power and resources.  That is lofty stuff, but well within the prevue of an informed citizenry.  Frank Zappa said that government is the entertainment arm of the military industrial complex.  Representative Jason Smith’s political image as a humble, salt-of-the-earth fiscal conservative might be up for a modification as the news that the many campaign and government trips and exotic vacations with his close friend, Aaron Schock, are being scrutinized by federal investigators looking into alleged spending abuses.  Meanwhile, some of the poorest people in the world, the Greeks, are being the most generous to the tide of refugees fleeing the tumult in the Middle East, which some may say is the result of meddling by the oil hungry western nations.  Come down to where country roads meet the pavement at the bottom of several hills on the wide, wild, wooly, welcoming banks of Old Fox Creek and share your views on local and planetary politics.  Or better yet, sing.  “Oh, it’s a long, long while/ From May to December/ But the days grow short/ When you reach September….Oh, the days dwindle down/ To a precious few/ …and these few precious days/ I’ll spend with you” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!