Champion News

CHAMPION—July 2, 2019

A lovely family visit kept some Old Champions away from their television news for a few days and it was a genuine relief. When they turn it back on they will doubtlessly be amazed at the new batch of absurdities masquerading as foreign policy. We observe Independence Day on the Fourth of July though the Continental Congress made the decision on July 2, 1776. We can only imagine what those founding fathers would think of the current state of affairs. The occasion is celebrated with pyrotechnics from China that scare our dogs and strain our many Veterans and others who suffer with post-traumatic stress syndrome. Yet those stunning displays of fireworks along with rousing music can still stir up a little patriotic fever in the hearts of the most disillusioned. Huzza.
 
 

CHAMPION—July 4, 2019

July 4, 2019 found the creek banks full of families and friends. They shared their favorite summer foods: watermelon, bratwurst, brisket, banana pudding and the like. The ‘organ recital’ of health reports was balanced out nicely with the good news of garden successes, antics and attributes of favorite dogs, travels, and the exploits and victories of children and grandchildren. Year upon year family groups and groups of families gather at this time for the joy of continuity. It satisfies the need to belong. Community, however loosely organized, is the tie that binds. As the Nation celebrates its birthday, people across the whole country are gathered on creek banks, back yards, patios and parks commiserating and struggling to dredge up confidence that democracy will survive these tumultuous days of black caviar money and the notion that only losers let the rules stop them from winning, after all, cheating is the highest form of trying. But that is not who WE are. Many are feeling nostalgia for the innocence and optimism that allowed patriotism. Down here on the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek WE THE PEOPLE still sing “God Bless America” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Early arrivals at the Champion Bash-Fling were Barbara and Kenneth Anderson, Dean Upshaw, David Upshaw,
Dailey Upshaw, Danny and Jenny Johns, Judy and Eldon Russell, Betty and Dale Thomas.

The Champion Summer Bash-Fling was a pleasant affair. Shade trees and good food, music and seldom seen friends made for a wonderful day. The creek was full of children and the birthday girl was full of good cheer. She said everyone seemed to have a good time even though it was a little hot. She was glad to meet some out-of-towners who came to enjoy Champion for the day. She said she was so excited and grateful for everyone who came out and they are definitely planning to do it again next April or May. She hopes the rain will not delay the fun next year, though she has nice things to say about enjoying the rain. She and the Prominent Champion are already planning the Skyline Picnic with will happen August 9th and 10th this year. Time flies when you are having fun.

Birthdays are for celebrating if you want to. Sherry Bennet, a favorite local chanteuse, and Nick Masi, octogenarian plus three, enjoyed the 25th of June as their day along with Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell), who was born on that day in 1903. Mr. Blair has given us a great deal to think about in these days which seem to fulfill his dystopian prophecies. Susan Handcock celebrates on June 30th. The General’s son, Michael, shares the first of July with an Old Champion, now eighty years old. The second is for Beverly Barnhart who is recovering from having fallen off a tractor seat. It is an interesting story. Alvin will tell his classmates from the Mountain Grove Class of 1959 all about it when they have their alumni dinner on July 5th at the Freewill Baptist Church. He will be glad to know that “The Hoover”’ will be there. Virginia Canada has a birthday on July 5th and some considerable connections to this part of the world. There is always a reason to celebrate.

There is sadness to report also. Bonnie Brixey passed away on Sunday. Her funeral will be at the Denlow Church at 10:00 a.m. Friday, July 5th.  She and Pete always loved to go to the Denlow School Reunion. They did not make it this year but were happy to enjoy the photographs on line of the Fairview and Denlow School students and could identify them all. She was pleased that the people who own her old home place keep it up well. She said that her Mom and Dad built that house for $100.00 with a lot of used lumber and rocks that came out of Clever Creek over south of Cold Springs, the labor was provided by her Dad’s father and brothers. They had a lot of fun growing up there. She read The Champion News on line and said she liked it that it always ends: Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Bonnie’s house.

Summertime road to Champion

Summer time, summer time, sum, sum summertime…..” It is here! Champions are serious about flip flop weather. Particularly serious is the January birthday girl who chooses to celebrate her big day half way down the calendar for the joy of flip flops. This year the Champion Spring Fling has morphed into the Champion Summer Bash. It is official and it will happen Saturday, June 29th. Happy birthday, dear Sami! The fun will start around 11 in the morning and goes well into the afternoon. The fun need not stop. What you do on your own time is up to you. While you are at Champion you can enjoy the chance to meet up with old friends and to make new ones. All you musicians are invited to bring your instruments for a jam under the big oak tree. Everyone, bring your lawn chairs and a sunbonnet or hat might be a good idea. It is going to be a lovely day. There will be all kinds of good things to eat available from The Prominent Citizen himself and his helpers. Some Old Champions expecting company from the north and the south will have one less meal to feed them and they will get a quality experience of an awesome Ozark community. Katlyn McConnell sends her regrets from some distant adventure. We will have a good time anyway and we will tell her all about it next time she is in town.

Meanwhile, our beloved mail carrier, Karen Ross, will enjoy commemorating forty years of marriage, all to the same lucky man! She enjoys the radio on her route. She might hear “My One and Only Love.” Sweethearts still. Axyl Miller will be in the first grade in the fall. His birthday is June 17th. Daniel Parkes is in the 7th grade. His birthday is June 19th. Easton Shannon, 3rd grader, and Kash Hurt, first grader, share the 24th for their birthdays. Other special observances are for Tyler Clark, who was born June 20, 1988, and for Linda K. Watts and Sierra Parsons both born on the Vernal Equinox. Elizabeth Warren and Ava’s Cinita Brown share the 22nd for their birthdays. Nick Massey and Sherry Bennett enjoy the 25th for their special day, though Sherry had that song sung to her last Thursday. Esther Wrinkles is remembered on her birthday which was on the 28th. She was born in 1917, and left us in 2013. Ms. Eva Powell has the 29th of June as her birthday. So does Butch Kara, who is putting a lot of hard work in on making the Pioneer Heritage Festival of the Ozarks happen again the first week end in October? Happy birthday, all you students and all you adults from your friends in Champion!

Alvin Barnhart is a member of the Mountain Grove High School Class of 1959. They will be observing their 60th Class Reunion with a dinner Friday evening, July 5th at the Freewill Baptist Church. Alvin thinks as many as fifty might attend. There were about a hundred students in the class. Twenty-seven are known to have passed on. Hopes are that “The Hoover” will read about it in The Champion News and will drive all the way up from Houston, Texas. That is what happened last year. He and Dawn always bring fun with them and are always welcome.

The Summer Solstice came with some fast and hard hitting little thunderstorms, but it is like Bertie sings, “Storms Never Last” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Champion Elderflowers

Richard and Kaye Johnston ventured into Champion on Wednesday. Kaye had peeled potatoes for the Senior Center up in Salem that morning. She volunteers there on Fridays too, answering phones. Because of Kaye the crowd was not totally lacking in Upshaws but they were still four short. The General was hauling hay, and the brothers might have been scared off by the threat of a hard rain, though the weather was not very threatening and they are not scared of much. It was a pleasant if small gathering. Wes Smith tried to leave the store several times in order to go to work, but had interference. He and Pat celebrate their anniversary on June 15th. They tied the knot in 1983. They are both retired now and often are seen in the same company. The Cowboy was talking fast cars with Bob and Don and discussing happenings on his soap opera with his niece. He rushes home to be sure to catch the next episode. Champions are careful not to try to delay him or to get in his way.

It was a real treat to have Eula Lakey at the Vanzant Jam on Thursday. Since there were sixteen in the circle, The General opted not to play, though his fans are much looking forward to a reprise of his original “Over and Under Down Yonder.” Meanwhile, it was fun to have Wilma Hutchison join the circle for a song. She has nice voice and wonderful enthusiasm. Judy and Eldon Russell reported that Bertie and the Boys had done a bang-up job at Roy’s Store last Friday and said that the crowd was mostly made up of folks from the Vanzant Jam. It is a gift when someone who has been absent for a while shows up again. David Richardson is so busy since his retirement that he could not remember where he was the previous Thursday. “Beulah Land” is one of those songs that wants just the right voice. That voice is recovering and hopefully will sooth the bunch again as the last song of the evening, as she has done so often. Up in Edgar Springs they only jam once a month, so an accomplished Dobro player from up that way, who enjoys a good pot-luck supper, has found this group and is making a habit of it. Gina Hollingshead shared her recipe for wilted lettuce with a friend who was thinking about elder flower fritters. It is a beautiful time of the year for music, garden produce, old time recipes and friendships.

On Sunday we celebrate our fathers. Telephones ring. Packages with ugly neckties and good barbeque tools arrive. Those lucky enough to have their fathers with them still and to have them close get the joy of the hug that says, “Thank you for being my Dad,” and “Thank you for being by Kid!” It is a two way street. Memories of good times together, lessons learned from each other, together with respect and admiration for each other make the parent-child continuum one of life’s sweetest gifts. Thanks, Old Man. The gentleman had a beautiful day for it, but these days all seem to be ideal here in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Civil War Bus Tour [enlarge]

Forty-seven showed up Monday morning for the Civil War Bus Tour sponsored by the Ava Area Chamber of Commerce. Marilyn Alms explains that it is part of a state wide effort to introduce the interesting tourism available in the State of Missouri. She said that she thought Ava was the first community that she knows of who have done a presentation like this. There is a full week of activities available, all of it free. Judy and Eldon Russell took the tour Monday and said they had taken the Mill Tour last year and really enjoyed it. Contact the Chamber of Commerce at (417) 683-4594 to find out more. Monday’s Civil War Tour stopped at a number of Civil War grave sites in town and made a foray out past Cow Skin Creek to an old cemetery where a number of Home Guard combatants and Civil War Veterans are buried. Ms. Alms and author-reenactor, Tim Ritter of Fair Grove, gave commentary at each stop based primarily on the keen observations of Columbia J. Makin (1871-1958), which appear in a recently published book, “Dear Descendants.” She dictated the stories to her daughter to preserve family history for future generations and in the process produced a valuable record of the town that now claims 2,993 residents. Mrs. Mankin’s original book has been augmented by many pages of photographs and an introduction by Douglas County native and historian, Cinita (Davis) Brown. Folks like Mrs. Mankin and her daughter, Orla Mankin Vaughn, Cinita Brown, Marilyn Alms and Tim Ritter put in the effort to make the past understandable and relatable to us today. Let us not leave out Sharon Sanders whose labors with the Douglas County Museum are inspirational. History is the study of life in society in the past, in all its aspect, in relation to present developments and future hopes. Seeing where we came from helps us understand how we got to where we are and helps us plan for where we are going. Go to Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

The Douglas County Museum

Because the Fourth of July will occur on a Thursday this year, it was decided by a show of hands last week that the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam will not happen that night.  The following Thursday, the 11th, preparations will be underway for the Vanzant Picnic on July 12 and 13, so there will be no jam that night either.  Two weeks without a jam will be hard on some folks, but there should be no further disruption until Thanksgiving.  The year is flying by and Champions are thankful every beautiful day that dawns.  Music is one of those gifts in life.  As Carl Perkins said, “Singing seems to help the troubled soul.”  A person can also use music to lower blood pressure and lift spirits.  It is good medicine.  If you are connected to the internet, you can find almost any music you like.  Father’s day is coming up and one remembers a father who could recall a song that fit any situation.  It made for a pleasant childhood and an overall optimistic outlook.

Haymakers are hard at it.  The countryside hums with machinery.  Even with the lush foliage to absorb it, the droning of equipment is the soft distant background for the buzzing insects and singing birds.  A few cool dry days will benefit farmers who are laying up stores for future need.  Meanwhile, those buzzing insects might really be a condition called tinnitus, something that many old folks might understand.  For those gardeners who plant more than they can tend, and for people who are only now realizing they are old:  there, there.  Buck up.  Remember being young like Skyline School eighth graders, Wyatt Hicks and Zachary Coon.  Wyatt has his birthday on the 13th and Zachary has his on the 17th.  First grader, Axyl Miller celebrates on the 17th and Daniel Parks, in the 7th grade, has the 19th for his special day.  Ava’s lovely Janice Lorrain has the 15th for her party and Champion grandson Foster Wiseman has the 16th for his.  He may be 16!  What?  Time goes by.  Folks visiting from the city are heard to say that being in this part of the world with all its rural magic and small town charm is like going backwards in time.  Of course, looking at the rapidly eroding world situation, everyone must feel that way on some level.  Still, these are being glorious days in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

A Friday foray in to the post office in Norwood gave one Old Champion a chance to enjoy the profusion of Echinacea blooming along both sides of Highway C.  The purple cone flowers mixed in with the tall grasses, the Queen Anne’s lace and the daisies all make for a glorious trip, especially with the background of lush green foliage everywhere.  It is not quite summer—a spectacular time of the year.  Echinacea is said to be an herb that encourages the immune system and reduces many of the symptoms of colds, flu and some other illnesses, infections and conditions.

Once again Champions are in the enviable situation of not having to haul water to fill our mud holes.  The consensus of rain gauge readings was in the neighborhood of 3+ inches all of a sudden Tuesday.  The creeks were not up so much, but roads are badly washed in spots.  “Don’t that road look rough and rocky?”  The Cowboy has just thrown his hands up, saying he is about done with rebuilding fence.  The last one that needed rebuilding was pretty—welded steel pipe and recently painted.  The Prominent Champion said it was probably the paint that brought it down.  Long ago each of them thought a nice bottom land farm would have been just the ticket, but now neither of them would take one as a gift.  Reports are that as many as 250,000 acres of farm land are currently underwater across the country.

It was pleasant to see some of the ‘regulars’ around the tables at the Historic Emporium—Bob and Ethel, Don and Reba, Wes, Mutt, Dean and Dailey.  Not everyone can make it down to the Bright Side every Wednesday, but they are glad when they do.  Charlie Lambert and Delmer Dooms came down from Mountain Grove to meet up with Alvie Dooms.  The fair Janice Ray had a rendezvous with some motorcycle goof.  When the Rt. 72 mail carrier, Karen Ross stopped in on her route, she was regaled with stories about Homer Akers when he ran the route.  (Wait a minute Mr. Postman!)  Alvie said the many stories about Homer were not exaggerated enough to meet the true history of it.  He also answered the question about who might have been the musicians who played for dances upstairs at the Denlow Store, i.e. himself, his older brother, Edgar, and J.P. Ferrell.  Now there are stories about Alvie on The Voice of America.  Out on the wide veranda Charlie was coaxed into playing a tune on the mandolin.  He played the Spanish Two-Step and what a lovely tune that is!  He has not been playing much recently, but his many friends and fans will try to remedy that.

Summer school is in session at Skyline School.  Nurse Bridget Hicks enjoyed her birthday there on the 4th.  She has a sunny disposition and a talent for encouraging and instructing our able Skyline Archers.  Thanks, Bridget!  One sings, “Many a fine tune can be plucked on the banjo.  Take for example ‘My Grandfather’s Clock.’  For that one and more than two hundred others, enjoy the fine plucking of David Medlock.”  His birthday is on June 6th.  Surely the Vanzant Jam will find a way to celebrate him.  Champion friend, Kaitlyn McConnell (no relation to Mitch) also enjoys D-day for her birthday.  She does a great deal to promote the history, culture and appreciation of the Ozarks with her great blog “Ozarks Alive.”  Look up her great work at www.ozarksalive.com  Wayne Sutherland was 85 on June 7, 2015.  His lovely daughter, Greta, had her birthday on the 5th.  He was seen on Monday’s McClurg Jam posting on the internet enjoying the music.  He was also there, together with more than 80 others, a couple of weeks ago in a tribute jam for J.R. Johnston who left us recently.  There were jams inside and outside that night.  The little building could not hold all of them.  Fortunately there was no rain and there will be no end to the remembering of J.R.

There is also no end to the remembering of those who stormed “The Shores of Normandy” to fight the tyranny of fascism.  Our precious democracy once again seems at risk, but we are hopeful yet in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Rough and rocky…