Champion News

CHAMPION—August 26, 2013

        Good news comes in a wonderful little package by the name of Drayson Vaughn Cline.  He arrived on the 23^rd at 10:24 in the evening.  The good news came to many on the social network facebook via the young man’s proud aunt.  He is a popular guy already.  On one side of the family alone he has cousins:  Dakota and Dillon Watts, Foster and Kalyssa Wiseman, Eli and Emerson Rose Oglesby, and Taegan Krider.  There is another whole side of the family, the Clines, out there also very much excited about a newcomer.  In just a few minutes internet messages arrived from Cathie Alsup Reilly, Nadine Shaffer Smith, Leigh Ann Lewis, Katie Vivod, Candy Clark-Hibbitts, Emily Ash, Teresa Chapman-Stout, Anna Johnson, Barbara Brooke, Wilma Ash, Darcy Cecil, LaDonna Garrison, Wilda Moses, Steve Krider, Sherrill Ash, Christy Berry, and Kathy Krider.  By now, the Mother and Father are no doubt swimming in well wishes and their Champion friends and family are overjoyed for them and wish them every good fortune.  “Mama rock a little, Papa rock a little too, gonna try to do a little sleeping maybe.  If it’s just for a moment or an hour or two, it’s entirely depending on the baby!”  Champion!

        Birthdays continue to be a favorite subject particularly among those people having them.  Dakota Watts just had one, and Foster’s grandmother, Bernice Wiseman, just had one.  Kalyssa Wiseman and Jenna Brixey have one on Saturday.  They will both be six on the 31^st.  That is the day of the Champion School Reunion in Champion and the Brixeys are having a family reunion over in Nixa, so everybody will be celebrating and having fun.  Skyline School teacher, Mrs. Gunter, celebrated on the 23^rd and Crystal Sartor will have her special day on Thursday the 29^th.  Skyline teachers will be enjoying the book fair starting the 29^th.  It will last until September 9^th.  They say there will be plenty of time to buy the newest books, including Grandparents day on the 6^th.  Everyone is invited to stop in to see what is available.  Back to birthdays, years slip by more quickly it seems as people age.  The nature of the excitement over a birthday changes with age as well.  Expressions of Love and Gratitude are the order of every day for celebrating Champions. “Happy birthday!” they shout, “We are glad you could join us for another year!”

        The famed bear of Brushy Knob can be seen on the community events page at www.championnews.us.  It might be easy perhaps to be a little dismissive of what seems like the disproportionate fears of an otherwise solid, well-grounded citizen reporting having seen a bear in her yard.  Then the picture of the bear appears.  No wonder fear gripped the heart!  The folks at the Department of Conservation say to make a lot of noise when you are out if you suspect there is a bear in your area.  A couple of pot lids banging together can be as noisy as a shotgun and perhaps a little less dangerous.  Of course if a person goes in the house to get pot lids, chances are pretty good that the bear will not follow.  If he does, however, go for the shotgun.   Mostly people are admonished to stay alert.  That is always good advice and it was good advice on Sunday when a night owl over in Champion East looked up to see a brown striped scorpion walking toward her across the clean wood floor!  She captured it and photographed it for the Champion News.  She said she had no idea that there were any of these things around here and had never seen one.  The University of Missouri extension office says that this is the only naturally occurring species of scorpion in Missouri.  Young scorpions are pale yellowish-brown, usually with two lengthwise dark stripes on the abdomen; older scorpions are uniform dark brown with the stripes faint or lacking.  This one is young.  It takes about four years to become adults and then they only live a couple more years.  A good piece of information about all scorpions is that they glow under iridescent light such as a black light.  The high tech night owl of Champion East probably has a couple of black lights hanging around so she can scan her floor if she gets worried.  Research informs that scorpions hide during the day and are active at night.  They eat soft-bodied prey such as spiders, ants, crickets, beetles and butterflies.  The Department of Conservation says that while these scorpions are usually found in drier habitats, they require moisture and may be attracted to moist areas.  They tend to live under boards, stones or other objects, or beneath loose bark on trees and logs.  They generally do not like extremely high temperatures and, during the summer, may enter the living areas of a home seeking relief from heat and dryness.  When they come indoors, they are most often found in crawl spaces and attics.  It may be that the unusual weather of recent months has the little critter confused.  He is very interesting, but not welcome.  Not welcome inside at all—neither scorpion nor bear.

        Pete Proctor posts on Facebook that a 20-year old northwest Missouri man has died during fighting in Afghanistan.  The Department of Defense announced Sunday that Pvt. Jonathon Michael Dean Hostetter of Humphreys was killed Friday by an improvised explosive device.  He was a combat engineer who joined the Army in September 2012.  Also killed in the explosion was 23-year old Army Spc. Kenneth Clifford Alvarez of Santa Maria, California.  Both men were assigned to the 40^th Mobility Augmentation Company, 2^nd Engineer Battalion.  Pete is good to keep the U.S. Service personnel in the forefront to remind the community of the sacrifices people are willing to make for their Country.  His Champion friends appreciate his efforts and his own service.  For many reasons, including the noble purpose of preserving freedom and insuring the safety of the Nation, young people join the military.  A popular posting on social media has a young child asking his mother, “Why do we have wars?”  The mother answers, “Because we are ruled by an elite group of psychopaths who own the banks that control the government and media.  They fund both sides of war for profit and they manufacture the consent of the public through the propaganda of the media.”  The world is an increasingly dangerous place and for whatever the reasoning, Champion applaud those willing to protect and defend.

        Pete will probably be at the Champion School Reunion on Saturday.  Friends are looking forward to seeing Ruby Proctor there with her sisters and children and dear friends.   There will probably be a bunch of Browns, Cooleys, Sutherlands, Hutchisons, Wrinkles, Hensons, Andersons, Kriders, Upshaws and many others.  Hopes are that the weather will be cool and pleasant.  The big walnut trees have shaded this event for many years now.  It is sure to be an excellent gathering again.  There was some talk last year about people bringing their pictures to share.  Hopefully, some of that will happen and the debris in Fox Creek will doubtlessly spark memories of high water marks in the past.  The school house floor is dry again and there will be some who have not seen the nice steps and wheel chair ramp that have been added in recent years.  The water covered the new steps and reached the steps of the Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square but it stayed high and dry.  It is delightful to be part of such a progressive community so dedicated to its wonderful past and so keenly alert to its excellent present.  Everyone is welcome to join in the fun at Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—August 19, 2013

        Lawnmowers and weed-eaters have been working overtime in this post picnic dry spell.  Those willing to get up at a descent hour have been able to enjoy the ethereal beauty of mists rising from valley floors and fog hanging on hill tops.  Coming home from town in the early evening, viewing the familiar scenery in a new light, Champions are amazed at the verdant splendidness of the place they are fortunate enough to call home.

        Ogden Nash was born on August 19, 1902.  He said, “Children aren’t happy with nothing to ignore, and that’s what parents are created for.”  It is sure that Eli and Emerson Rose Oglesby will not ignore the chance to sing happy birthday to their Mother this week on the 22^nd and the 24^th will be the birthday of their cousin, Dakota Watts, over in Tennessee.  Daniel Cohen up in Pennsylvania has his birthday on the 24^th as well.  He spent some of his formative months/years in Champion where he learned to make an exceptional pineapple upside down cake and proved himself to be extraordinarily good company.  He teaches literature now in a private school in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania and lives in the 200 year old house where he grew up all except for the wonderful time he spent in Champion.  People like their roots.

        Thirty or so Upshaws celebrated their roots together with ice cream and family fun over in Upshaw (Swanky) Suites and Spa in the Villa at Vanzant. The General is said to have spun yarns and ice cream freezers and is accused of spinning the press as his picture seems so prominent in local papers.  Family members poured in from Marshfield, Champion, Alaska, Mountain Grove, Idaho and other places just as the rain was letting up.  Those from farthest afield were able to stay around for a few days to see things dry up (the General notwithstanding).  Darcy Cecil found a way to get the quilt she won at the Skyline picnic home to Boise and so all is well.  It makes for happy hearts when so much of a family cares enough about each other to spend time together in this fashion.  They are Champions all, even those with Denlow leanings.

        Gardeners have an abundance of grass cuttings set aside now for garden mulch and just need to spend these early cool mornings weeding their rows.  More seasonable weather might bring on a resurgence of produce and though some things look a little worse for all the water, no one is complaining.  Linda’s Almanac says that the 22^nd and 23^rd will be good days for planting root crops, as will the 27^th and 28^th.  One old girl will be sure to get some turnips in the ground against the possibility of having Lem and Ned stop by late this fall.  These are a pair of roaming hillbilly boys who show up on occasion looking for hard work to do in exchange for a sack of turnips.  They like them raw or can tell you just how to go about making a turnip pie.  It is kind of like a pumpkin pie but without the pumpkin.  It is not a favorite of many around here which may be why one rarely hears about it, though it turns out there are 42 different turnip pie receipts on one internet site alone.  www.yummly.com/receipts/turnip-pie.  Who would have thought it?  While she sows her turnip seeds, the woman will think about how she would like the old chicken house cleaned up and the grapevine taken down out of the far yard trees and some big rocks moved out of the drive way.  Those boys only come by once in a blue moon, so she generally has a backlog of work lined out for them.  She might be surprised to know that August’s full moon on the 20-21^st is considered to be a Blue Moon.  The seasonal definition for the term is the third of four full moons in a single season—a season being defined as the time period between a solstice and an equinox or vice versa.  (The popular definition is the second of two full moons in a single calendar month.)  She will be caught short of turnips if they show up this week.  Perhaps some immature parsnips would do, or perhaps some of the Kohlrabi that was up for bid at the silent auction at the picnic.  It is sure that if two stout young men with good attitudes show up looking for work, vegetables can be found to satisfy their fee.

        Rebellious, non-progressive, tree hugging, eco-greenie, conservationist radicals are taking advantage of the prevailing conditions to catch up on their laundry as they string their non-electric, zero carbon foot-print, non-toxic, solar powered clothes drying apparatus from tree to tree.  It is an ancient technology as useful and efficient today as when Eve pinned the family fig leaves there on that first wash day.

        The Champion School Reunion is just around the corner.  It is expected that the crowd will be bigger than usual as school alumni return to verify that their wonderful old building has been reclaimed from the flood waters.  They will be delighted to see that big industrial floor drying fans were implemented to good effect.  The reunion comes on the Saturday before Labor Day every year and marks the beginning of the fall social season.  Soon Bud Hutchison’s Fall Trail Ride will be ambling through town and the West Plains Wagon Club will be traipsing through.  Those Pioneer Descendants will gather down at Yates to see what the flood wrought there.  The trail rides will be a little less interesting as the erstwhile barber who generally rides drag will be absent.  He has sold his horses and has plans to move to town.  His Champion friends might miss him if they saw more of him.  He has a guitar and the hairdo of a country music star.  He probably knows that old saw, “How can I miss you if you won’t go away?”  He has a choice piece of real estate and so chances are good that one of these days new neighbors will be getting acquainted with all the mysteries and magnificence of their new home and their beautiful neighborhood, while he settles into the conveniences of town living.  Change is good and Champions wish him well.

        Pictures of the flood in Champion are on the website at www.championnews.us.  The broad inviting veranda is there high and dry and available for anyone to use as a platform for looking out over one of the world’s truly lovely places—Champion!  Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—August 12, 2013

        Fox Creek left its banks and cut a wide, wet swath through Champion last Thursday leaving mud coats on trees and brush higher than Cowboy Jack could reach if he were sitting on his high horse!  Big round hay bales floated by from Denlow headed on down to 14 Highway and who knows where from there?  One lodged itself in the tidy little garden next to the Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square where bright sunflowers persisted above the deluge to wave happily in the sun that finally presented itself.  The water touched the steps of the store, but they remained dry.  The little church had six inches of water stacked up inside.  It may have been that deep in there when it flooded on Mother’s Day 2002, though the comparisons serve little purpose when it comes to wet carpets.  Gratitude still is the word of the day where comparisons are concerned.  Not too far away are a great number of people who have lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods.  Champions will not complain.

        Norris Woods was up at the Skyline Picnic and said that he had had 22½ inches of rain in fifteen days.  Several of those brave, good looking, friendly, helpful men who work for Leon Potter and this end of Douglas County made brief appearances at the picnic.  They say that there have been some people stranded because of the road conditions, but that everyone is being patient and understanding as they see the enormous amount of damage that has been done to the county roads.  Places are washed out that never have been before.  River Stillwood has a sign up looking for plans to build an ‘ark.’  Ronny Thompson and his co-worker were talking about how in the winter time  years ago the roadways would just dissolve under a car as the road thawed and it was not a matter of being stuck in the mud, but stuck in a hole.  “There’s a hole in the bucket, Dear Liza.”  There will always be plenty to do.

        “The bear went over the mountain” from one neighbor’s house to the next one.  The story was told that neighbor ladies ducked in their garage when they saw it and shut the door.  Fortunately, one of them had a cell phone and was able to call someone who came with a camera and a gun.  He took some good pictures they say and then fired the gun which caused the bear to leave.  The report was that the bear had pulled the garbage can off the deck and that on a previous occasion had attempted to take a bite out of the top of a barbeque grill.  It seems like the big fellow has found a home in the neighborhood.  Hopefully those good pictures will become available soon and Jerry Bennett, who lives up in Bluegrass, Iowa, will be able to put a face on the bear about which he reads and warns his Champion friends and family.  He knows how much his sweet Aunt Ruby Proctor loves Champion and so he is looking out for her at a distance.  McClures from Cincinnati, Iowa were sitting with Ruby at the picnic Saturday and were wishing Jerry could be there.

        Jeffry Goss called from down in Stone County looking for information about Linda’s Almanac.  He would like to have some copies of it available for the September 27^th meeting of the Christian Agricultural Stewardship Institute (CASI) which will be held at the Vanzant Community Building.  He says the meeting is free and that there will be speakers talking about farming in general and about the various ‘free energy’ scams that are going on these days.  Activities will start at 10:00 a.m. and farmers are encouraged to bring dry ears of their various corn varieties for comparison.  There will also be tomato tasting and that is sure to bring some out who might ordinarily not go.  Goss was interested in finding out about the ‘Millionaire’ tomato, saying that he had heard that a family named Henson in Champion had once had a tomato cannery and that the family had preserved this particular variety of tomato.  Anyone with information about that can share it at Champion Items, Rt.2 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or at Champion at getgoin.net.  He mentioned the Harris Farmer’s Almanac.  He says it comes in a tan cover and is written by people in the area and oriented toward the Ozarks.  Linda’s Almanac is an amalgam of Ramon’s Brownie Calendar and Blum’s Almanac plus a few items of useful lore.  It comes out monthly and is available for perusal at Henson’s Grocery and Gas in Downtown Champion.  Mr. Goss had the presence of mind to ask upon which side of the Square the store might be located.  He does not use the internet so he cannot access the almanac at www.championnews.us as many, such as the Ava Garden Club, do.  Arrangements have been made to mail him a copy.  He will be pleased to know that the 17^th and 18^th will be good days for planting above-ground crops and that the 22^nd and 23^rd will be ideal for root crops. Linda contributed some lovely hanging baskets to the silent auction at the picnic.  Karen Griswold won one and Sherry Bennett won the other.  Karen works hard for the Skyline VFD year round and Sherry lent a welcome helping hand in getting the auction set up.  She is also quite a music lover and includes in her repertory “Five Pounds of Possum in My Headlights.”

        Picnic music is always wonderful in these parts.  In the excitement of getting ready for the picnic a special birthday slipped by.  Kalyssa and Foster sang “Happy Birthday!” to their dear old dad who was born August 8, 1968!  The 12^th of August is the birthday of Katharine Lee Bates who was born in 1859, and whose best known work, America the Beautiful, says, “O beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain.”  Again, all the picnic music was great, but Master of Ceremonies, Ray Bradley, did such an outstanding job with the National Anthem on both evenings that everyone is sure he has sung it many, many times.  He has those high notes down, with no strain and plenty of sustain.  What a guy!  He conducts the ceremonies, introduces the bands, gives away door prizes and makes announcements with such a nice dead-pan sense of humor, that a person forgets he used to be an undertaker!  When he calls the name of an absent person who must be present to win, he says, “Don’t say the guy is ‘no longer with us’ to an undertaker!”  His Champion friends are glad that he has relocated back to the area.  He just couldn’t stay away.

        Darcy Cecil of Boise, Idaho had the winning ticket for the exquisite cross stitched quilt.  She’ll have to get another suitcase to get it home on the plane.  She has but to notify the concierge at Chez Upshaw and one will appear.  She is part of the contingent of visitors from Idaho and Alaska who have come to soak up enough of their Ozark heritage to get them through for a while.  There are family reunions of the clan going on in various locations in the area and it would seem that rooms at The Upshaw Arms are quite commodious and the staff is ‘adequate.’  The White River Valley Electric award of $100.00 of free power went to Judie Pennington who lives in bear territory up Tar Button Road.  The super weather radio that the Howell Oregon people donated was sold in auction to Kent Stamper, the Grinning Garbage Man, who in addition to his generous bid, generously helps with the cleanup after the picnic.  Other auction items included the diamond ring donated by Marjorie Carter at the Downtown Pawn Shop that wound up on the pretty finger of the lovely Darlene, placed there by the man who loves her.  They are a Champion couple and dedicated workers for the Skyline VFD.  Several people, new to the area, expressed an interest in participating in the auxiliary.  So things are changing, growing and getting better and a big “Welcome Neighbor’ sign is vigorously implied.

        The next big order of business will be the Champion School Reunion.  That happens on the Saturday before Labor Day every year.  Hopes are that the weather will be accommodating by then and the old school house will be dry.  Feel welcome to sing, “Oh! It ain’t a gonna rain no more no more, it ain’t a gonna rain no more!” out on the spacious veranda of the Historic Emporium looking out over the beautiful flood plain that is Champion!—Looking on the Bright Side!

CHAMPION—August 5, 2013