Champion News

CHAMPION—June 27, 2011

        Champions are by their very natures ‘time travelers’ as they move effortlessly from the present to the past and the future.  The cicadas are gone!  Everyone knew they were here, but no one seems to be thinking about how they are gone now.  One old Champion says it is only just a little quieter now because she hears that little crickety sound in her head all the time.  It is called tinnitus and occurs for various reasons among older people.  It may be that some of those older Champions will be around in thirteen years to hear the male offspring of this brood sing again.  Apparently there are two basic types of cicadas, one being that 13 to 17 year bunch that Champions just enjoyed and the other is the periodic cicada.  These insects have a 2 to 8 year cycle and “seem” to appear every year in some areas, because their life cycle is staggered.  Actually, a different brood is hatching each year to make it seem like they are annual.  Some Champions can remember thirteen years ago when there was an harmonic convergence of cicada as thirteen year broods hatched out simultaneously with some two and seven year outfits.  It was dazzlingly loud.  Now some Champions are comforted to know that they will not have to wait the full thirteen years to hear them again.  June rolls around regularly.  Champion!

        Mail carrier, Karen Goss, is the major link that many Champions have with the rest of the world and she is much appreciated for her good work.  Back in May she enjoyed the company of her daughter and family down from Minot, N.D.  Tony, Gavin, and Noah Owens are her grandchildren and they live on the U.S. Air Force Base near Minot where their Dad is stationed.  They have not been affected by the flooding up there personally except to the extent that they are witnesses to historic events and are, no doubt, acquainted with newly displaced persons.  The wild vicissitudes of nature remind Champions that it not ‘safe’ anywhere on the world.

        Norwood has enjoyed regular rain in recent weeks–Linda said about every two or three days.  Postmaster, Kirk Dooms, said that while Norwood has seen frequent showers, over in Sweden they have hardly had a drop.  Champion is somewhere in the middle, but not complaining.  Kirk’s Aunt Esther Wrinkles said it would have been good to be able to store up all that rain from back around Easter and use it a little along as needed.  Gardeners would sure like that.  Linda’s Almanac says that the 30^th is the best day for planting root crops and excellent for sowing seedbeds and flower gardens also that it is a good day for transplanting.  Some are struggling with the aphids and not wanting to use insecticides because they have some friendly bugs (the Ladies) that they want to protect and encourage.  One is setting ant traps hoping to disrupt the ant colonies that ‘farm’ the aphids.  If it were not such a challenge to grow them, those wonderful tomatoes would not taste so good.  Anticipation is building as the “First Ripe Tomato in Champion Contest” is in its final days.  Just a little salt, perhaps, and the tomato juice will be flowing.  Certainly some are salivating already.  The antique (old) fruit jar will soon change hands and the blank spot on the “Certificate of Champion Achievement” will be filled in with the winner’s name.  Remember that song, “Just two things that money can’t buy and that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.”

        A nice chat with Pete Proctor covered a lot of territory.  He has been up to Columbia to the convention of all the VFW Posts in Missouri where his Mountain Grove Post 3770 was acknowledged for its good activities and good leadership.  Pete’s son is Bryan is stationed in Qatar currently where he is scheduling airlifts over Iraq and other places ‘over there.’  It is easy to see how proud Pete is of his son.  Pete joined the many Veterans who attended the memorial service for Private Matthew England over in Gainesville a week ago Sunday.  Pete travels in support of the Patriot Riders and said that there were 119 motorcycles in the throng.  He said that there were protesters there from the Westboro Baptist Church but that they were not able to get close to the actual memorial service.  He also said that there were signs in windows of restaurants and other businesses in Gainesville that indicated the businesses would not serve the protesters.  There was a report of some livestock trailers having been positioned so as to block the progress of the protesters.  Interestingly enough, Pete said that when people are in the area around Topeka, Kansas they are making it a point to protest against what they call a hate group at the church which is located on West 12^th street about three miles west of the Kansas State Capitol.

        Several gathered at the Skyline School on September 21^st to learn more about the Skyline R-2 School Foundation that will be an affiliate of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.  The School Board will be appointing five board members for the new foundation, which has a purpose of supplementing the school’s income to better serve the children of the Skyline District.  One of the interesting topics covered was Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.  This is a program that Dolly started up in her home county over in East Tennessee.  Her idea is to foster a love of reading among preschool children and their families by providing a brand new, age appropriate book each month to every child from birth to age five regardless of their family’s income.  Their last month in the program they receive a book called “Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come.”  Find out more about it at www.imaginationlibrary.com.  The program can go a long way to foster a successful school experience, which, of course, makes Champions in life.  Look in on the home of the Skyline Tigers at www.skylineschool.org.

        Mr. and Mrs. D.M. Cline will be returning from their extended summer vacation along toward the end of the week.  It will be exciting to hear all their observations and reflections concerning traveling, being home, and myriad other subjects.  It will be particularly interesting to learn if they were able to visit Champion, N.C. to inspect their excellent Champion Volunteer Fire Department.  Next time they go a’wanderin perhaps they will check out Champion, WI.  It is an unincorporated community in the town of Green Bay in Brown County, Wisconsin.  It is part of the Green Bay Metropolitan area.  Champion is the home of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.  The Virgin Mary is said to have appeared there three times to Belgium immigrant Adele Brise in 1859.  Devotees have since visited the site to pray for miracles and to seek solace and comfort.  In December Green Bay Bishop David Ricken read a proclamation that said the Vatican in Rome approved the formal declaration that puts the Shrine at Champion on the same Ecclastical level with the Shrines at Fatima, Lourdes, Guadalupe, and other places where there have been Marian apparitions.  At home, local Champions will host the Skyline VFD Ladies Auxiliary meeting on the 28^th.  It happens to be Esther’s birthday.  She is a vision!  Eva Powell is too and will also be celebrating all week.  Champions know how to do it!  Happy days to them and to Butch Kara!  Felicidades! 

        Find solace and comfort in metropolitan Champion, Missouri, nestled discretely in the luscious leafy bosom of Booger County where there are never any plumbing problems and summer days are delicious.  Stroll about the Historic District and see past, present, and future all come together in a little country store!  Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—June 20, 2011

        Champion fathers were much in the thoughts of Champions on Sunday as they often are.  Old timers remembered their old time fathers long gone from the world and others remembered with sweet sadness fathers who have only recently passed away.  It was good luck for everybody with a dad to see the old guy or to talk to him or just to remember him and the good things he did back in those youthful days.  When grandmothers talk about how much they had loved their own grandfathers that feeling of continuity is encouraging even when the father’s fathers are not ones own.  People in this country have been marking a special day of acknowledgement for fathers since about the time Champion first showed up on a map.  One good thing leads to another in Champion.

        Summer officially arrives at 12:16 p.m. Tuesday the 21^st with the longest day of the year and the shortest night.  This celestial event is celebrated around the world, most notably in England at Stonehenge and Avebury, where thousands gather to welcome the sunrise on the Summer Solstice.  Champions have their individual ways of marking the day.  One family watches the splash of sunlight coming through one particular window and marks it with a pencil on the wall when it reaches its farthest point.  They check to see if it matches up with last year’s mark, just to verify that the world is turning according to schedule.  Modern associations with the solstice go to the idea of lucky June weddings and honeymoons.  Staci and Dustin Cline are off on a second honeymoon after three successful years of marriage.  They are spending time in Tennessee with Linda and Marty Watts and then heading out to get a good look at the ocean.  Linda has her birthday on the 21^st so there will surely be some partying going on. Champions look forward to their report.  The 21^st is also the birthday of Sierra Parsons, a Champion granddaughter, who must be sixteen this year!  Where does the time go, Grandmother Judith?

        Perhaps the Clines will drive through Champion, North Carolina on their way to the ocean.  The community is in Wilkes County and it shows up on the map a little south of the Blue Ridge Parkway and a little east of the Cherokee National Forrest.  The current population of Champion, NC is said to be 1,561 people.  The community is very proud of the Champion Volunteer Fire Department, which has two substations and covers an enormous area.  The northern part of their fire district is rugged and mountainous.  The largely rural area has many homes built deep in the woods.  The southern area has some quite high-end resort kinds of residences on the water.  The fire chief there says that as first responders they go on as many as two hundred medical assist calls a year.  That is about what the Skyline Volunteer Fire Department does.  All of the Skyline fire fighters are first responders and they go through the annual training programs to maintain their certifications.  Champion, Missouri deep in Douglas County is quite fortunate to have the Skyline Volunteer Fire Department in such close proximity.  The Skyline VFD Ladies Auxiliary will meet in Downtown Champion on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 1:30 in the afternoon.  Anyone in the fire district is welcome to attend.  There will be old business to discuss and the new business will most likely be centered around the Skyline Picnic which is scheduled for August 12^th and 13^th this year.  There will also be some lovely business of celebrating Esther Wrinkles 94^th birthday.  She has been a tireless worker for the fire department since it started up many long years ago and her contributions are much appreciated.  Eva Powell, another auxiliary member, will mark her birthday on the 29^th as will KZ88 Radio personality Butch Kara.  Celebrating friends and neighbors is a very Champion thing to do–very Champion!

        A Champion gardener is having difficulties with a raccoon damaging garden plants as it digs around under the mulch and makes a general mess and nuisance of itself.  Four nights in a row it has thwarted the ‘hav-a-heart’ trap and has made off with the bait.  The second night, the critter spent some time in the trap and left a little tuft of hair, but managed to escape.  It must be the same raccoon that the Champions spouse wanted to shoot earlier the previous week.  The gardener spoke up to discourage the killing, but now has had second thoughts.  It is quite probable that there are several raccoons responsible for the mayhem in the garden, so it is hoped that there will be several relocations of raccoons from Champion North to, well, no telling, or maybe that spouse will do some dispatching.  Linda’s Almanac from over at the Plant Place in Norwood shows that the 22^nd and 23^rd will be good days for planting root crops, as will the 26^th, 27^th, and 30^th.  Check out the almanac at www.championnews.us in the links section.  Get a look at those First Ripe Tomato in Champion Contest Winners there too.  It could happen any time now, a Champion with the winning ripe home grown tomato could waltz into Henson’s Store with it.  It is not required that the contestant waltz, just that he (or she) be willing to share that tomato with the judges who will verify its ripeness and award the prizes. “Prizes?” you say.  Yes, indeed there are prizes!  For starters there will be the old fruit jar (antique) and some canning jar lids and perhaps some other things as well.  Organizers are getting organized and will hopefully have their act together before the tomatoes start rolling in. 

        Private First Class Matthew Joseph England was killed earlier this month while serving in Iraq.  He was 22 years old and had lived in Ozark County since he was a small child.  A memorial service was held for him in Gainesville on Sunday as miles of cars, emergency vehicles, and veterans lined up to pay tribute to him.  Champions honor all those Veterans and those serving in and out of uniform at the behest of the Nation and extend to them and to those they leave behind Love and Gratitude for their service.

        Some Champions are looking into old song books to be sure they remember the words to some of those patriotic songs that are sure to be sung in masse at the Annual Champion Fourth of July Celebration.  “He has trampled down the village where the shapes of wasps annoyed” or “there the drapes of glass avoid.” Send your own favorite patriotic song to Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or to Champion News.  Remember “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and sing it out loud as you wander the wide and wooly banks of Old Fox Creek on the Eastern boundary of the bucolic wonderland that is Champion–”Glory, glory Hallelujah!” Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—June 13, 2011

        Unrelenting optimism and profound Gratitude are some of the hallmarks of Champion as a community and of Champions as individuals.  One Champion, as she turned to address a long series of kinks and crimps in her garden hose, smiled recalling the absolute delight that she had felt last winter upon finding such a wonderful bargain on a fifty foot garden hose.  It was easily a third less expensive than the last one she had purchased.  Such a bargain!  Prudence requires her to use the hose now though it is time consuming, easily by a third, and inconvenient.  Next year when she has to replace this one, as she surely will, she will recall with a smile how seldom she had sworn at the old one.  When her neighbor’s numerous cats visit her garden beds as if they were sand boxes, she recalls how often she has seen one of them leaving her place with a large rat in its mouth.  Balance, perspective, forbearance, humility, and humor are all Champion traits, along with Love and Gratitude.

        Champions traveling to Norwood have been treated to an unusually brilliant display of Echinacea blooming along both sides of the road for several miles.  Sections of this stretch of highway have always sported nice stands of the charming pink flower but his year is unusual.  Perhaps the abundant rain earlier in the year had an effect.  It may be that reduced funding for MODOT has caused a slowdown in the roadside mowing.  Maybe the mowing will come after the blooming.  The stringent rules concerning the harvesting of roadside plants may have been a factor.  Whatever the reason or combination of reasons, Champions are pleased at the sight and glad for the conservation of such an interesting and beautiful plant.  Echinacea was one of the basic antimicrobial herbs of eclectic medicine from 1850s through the early 1900s and its use was documented for snakebite, anthrax and for relief of pain.  In recent years it has been used to help stave off colds and flu.  It is said that Native Americans learned of Echinacea by observing elk seeking out the plants and consuming them when sick or wounded.  Seek them out at The Plant Place up in Norwood rather than on the side of the road.  Linda always has some good information to share about whatever growing thing interests you. Check out her almanac at www.championnews.us or get a copy from her.  She will tell you to deadhead your flowers to encourage them to continue to bloom since the plant’s goal is to produce seed.  “Deadheading” means to pick off the wilted, spent flowers.  The term is also used by truckers who are driving down the road without a load.  In aviation, deadheading is a term used when members of an airline’s flight staff are carried free of charge but not working.  The term also applies to the recipients of free tickets to theaters, concerts and the like who are seated in unsold seats after the performance has started as a way to increase the audience’s overall responsiveness to the performance.  To deadhead a pump means to restrict its discharge completely.  That is not a problem for centrifugal pumps, such as sump pumps, but for horizontal split case pumps, positive displacement pumps, turbine pumps, piston pumps and jet pumps deadheading can be the death of the pump.  Champions know their pumps and have no concern about vandals taking the handles.  Some use ‘deadhead’ to comment on the intellect of another person (not Lem or Ned) or to indicate that one is a die-hard fan of the band The Grateful Dead.  Bluegrass mandolin legend Jesse McReynolds has released “Songs of the Grateful Dead” on Woodstock Records according to www.mandolincafe.com.  Songs covered on the album include The Wheel, Fire on the Mountain, Deep Elem Blues and Black Muddy River.  Champions who have not been over to Poplar Bluff in a while wonder how folks there are getting along as they recover from the big flood of the Black River.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said this summer’s Missouri River flooding could rival the record years of 1952 and 1993 in some places in Missouri where it could rise as much as ten feet above flood stage.  It all goes downstream.  Champions extend their best wishes for a good recovery to all the storm and flood victims all around the country.  The Missouri National Guard has been and will continue to be responding to these disasters.  Champions appreciate all those wearing uniforms of the Nation.

        A Champion friend informs gardeners that sweet-corn can be planted as late as July 15^th with the expectation of a good harvest.  It seems that haymaking is one of those activities that can really get in the way of a gardener.  Timing is everything.  Harley was heard to say that if they had not paid attention to the weatherman they would have had their hay in by now.  He left some nice tomatoes and green beans in his garden up in Illinois and will be glad to get back to see how they are doing and to enjoy the always pleasant company of Barbara.  He seems to be glad to be wherever he is at the time and that is the mark of a real Champion.  Foster and Kalyssa have been having a good time with cousins Eli and Emmie who have been visiting for a few days.  It is summertime and children are enjoying their heyday.

        Champion, New York is a town in Jefferson County in the north central part of the state.  It was named after General Henry Champion, settled in 1798 and at the 2010 census it had a population of 4,494.  The Black River flows along the town’s east boundary, but it is most likely not the same Black River that flows through Poplar Bluff.  Champion, Missouri, by contrast, sits on the broad shady banks of Fox Creek.  Population estimates are subjective and vary according to who is doing the telling.  No real information has come to light concerning the origin of the name of the beautiful place, so if you know, share your knowledge of the place name at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO or at Champion News.  Stroll around the square to count the locals, or to assess the relative merits of the old and new as the recreation of the Historic Emporium settles in next to the tidy little garden and starts to appear as if it has always been there.  It is not a replica of the old store, but it very much has the flavor of the old place and affection and appreciation for its many fine qualities is growing steadily.  Off in the future it will become the old store that many remember from the prime of their Champion lives.  “Sometimes the lights’s all shinin’ on me, other times I can barely see.  Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been.”  What a trip!  To Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!