January 23, 2012
CHAMPION—January 23, 2012
Sunday found Champions responding to the slowness of the arrival of the weather front that was promised and described as a warming trend. Stillness marked the damp winter day when the earlier greens turned to gold on the ground and gray as the fog took the tops of the hills away and left sycamores reaching white down from sky to ground and from ground to sky. This is a visually stimulating time of the year in Champion. Then Monday morning dawned bright and clear, not too cold, and everything again took on that optimistic gleam. It is Champion.
Someone asked about that poem that celebrates the goodbyes. It was written by Bernice Morgan of Marshfield and dedicated to the Krider family. Read the whole thing in the archives at www.championnews.us. Find it in the January 25th post of 2009. The January 25th posting for 2010, includes good news from the Brixie clan that Jacob Kyle Brixie was born Monday evening, January 18th, 2010 at 6:01 to Jana and James Brixie. His older sister Jenna Kateland is now four and a half years old and it has indeed turned out that there has been enough love and fun to go around. (There was speculation way back then that this would most likely be the case.) There was a party for Jacob on Saturday the 21st and most of the same rowdy crowd showed up for that shindig that will be hanging around when the ‘old man’ celebrates his 40th on the 30th! “May your horse never stumble. May your cinch never break. May your belly never grumble and your heart never ache!” This is a birthday wish for persons who do not too much like the limelight, but like cowboy birthday sentiments. It is also a wish for young Billy Collins who will celebrate his 13th birthday on the 24th. He is a seventh grader at Skyline School. He enjoys all kinds of sports, especially basketball and soccer and he is learning to play the piano. Miss Brooke Johnson will be six on the 26th. She likes to sing and had a solo at the Skyline School Christmas program where she attends kindergarten with her cousin Rowdy. Old Champions remember their own sweet school days and cast their thoughts to these young ones now sometimes with envy of their youth and sometimes with gratitude for not to have to go through it all again. It is encouraging to see how many Old Champions are stepping up to support this little school that is the closest thing to their own country school experience that will ever be again. The Skyline R2 School Foundation is beginning to see some good donations come in. As years go by, the school stands to benefit significantly in its literacy and technology programs due to the generosity of nostalgic alumni of little rural schools. Zack Alexander’s mother attended Skyline. She will have her birthday on the 27th. She is somewhere well past 40 now and not suffering any loss of joie de vivre. Perhaps this is because she has such a handsome husband and an exceptionally good looking and smart child, or because her Champion upbringing gave her the confidence to express her own intelligence, the matriarchal inheritance of prodigal sarcasm notwithstanding. Champions applaud all celebrants no matter the cause!
Champions are applauding their returning Veterans and extending to them Love and Gratitude.
Champions in Edinburgh, Scotland are seeing sunset at about half past four in the afternoon these days. It is coming up a couple of minutes earlier there, as well as here, every day and so before long the days will be significantly longer and then shorter again, etc., ad inf. This Champion is in a good position to be able to see the Northern Lights that are said to be being spectacular these nights. Of course, Edinburgh is a huge city with lots of light pollution, so he might have to go up to the Highlands on a clear night to get a real view. It has been reported that the solar storm that causes the visual penomenum of the arora borialis is of such magnitude that the effect should be easily visible from Champion latitudes. That would require a clear night here. It could happen. People who watch these occurences for a living say that the storm is huge but that it will pass North of the Earth and that Earth is in no danger. They do say that there could be some minor interferrence with satellites and perhaps some power glitches as the magnetic field of the planet is disturbed. The Chinese New Year is being celebrated this week. The Year of the Dragon is portentous of very good luck, they say. Champions are ready. There are various predictions for gloom and destruction this year as per the Mayan calendar and certain miscalculating evangelical prognosticators, but Champions stay focused on the Bright Side.
Esther’s plant is a beautiful Sego Palm. No one has taken credit for the gift, so it is still a mystery plant. It adds a nice tropical feel to Esther’s house and she has very much been enjoying it, but she would still like to know who shared the lovely thing with her. She has been fighting off some bronchitis and so has been staying close to home. Better weather will see her out and about again and Champions will be glad. Maybe she will be in fine enough fettle to enjoy the Thursday pot luck jam session over at the Vanzant Community Center. One old Champion girl has so many cardinals in her lilac bush that she is trying to think of all the songs that talk about red birds. She can think of several songs about lilac bushes. No doubt some of those many musicians can come up with some for her. Thursday is the day for the Old Biddies to get together at the Mansfield Community Center for their monthly bridge game. Thursdays are busy days. Champion!
The Saturday Philosophy Club had its regular meeting in the Club Room at Hensons’s Grocery and Gas, which is better known to some as the Recreation of the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion. The round table fills up first since the idea is that no one can be cornered into saying something that he might regret or, in certain cases, telling the truth. It is a lively group and membership seems to be limited only to those present. Describe your philosophy or send your red bird songs to Champion at getgoin.net or to Champion Items at Rt. 2, Box 367 Norwood, MO 65717. Come down to the broad and wooly banks of Old Fox Creek for the kind of sightseeing that allows for the development of a tranquil, benevolent, lighthearted, compassionate, and appreciative philosophy. Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!
