December 21, 2015
CHAMPION—December 21, 2015
Champions have been watching out and not crying, not just because Santa is coming to town, but because they are alert and happy by nature. It is a beautiful time of the year, unseasonably warm and full of all the family fun that makes the weather immaterial. Christmas has sneaked up on some via the rapid passage of time together with the phenomena that much less is required to keep old people busy. Ready or not, Christmas will arrive and Champions will be joyful.
Willard Hall is an 8th grade student at Skyline. His birthday is December25th. Champion niece, Corinne Zappler has her birthday on December 27th. Third grade student, Logan Hull, celebrates on the 29th. Champion grandson, Eli Oglesby, celebrates on the 30th and his great uncle, General Upshaw, finishes off the year with his birthday on New Year’s Eve. With a birthday so close to Christmas, and on Christmas, in the case of Willard Hall, these folks must find ways to celebrate throughout the year. They know they are special. Unless a person is required to spend his birthday money on Christmas presents, it could be nice to have the whole world celebrating at the same time. Joy to the world!
Harley and Barbara Krider were in town for a few days. They started out at the Wednesday Soiree where they enjoyed visiting with a variety of folks gathered at the Historic Emporium. Barbara always brings some fun to the table. Later in the week, they hob-nobbed up in Rogersville with Champion sister, Vivian Krider Floyd. They slipped quietly out of town on Sunday afternoon. They have busy Christmas stuff to get done back in Illinois. The New Year will be brighter on the Bright Side if Harley and Barbara make it back more often.
Champion’s old friend from Nowata, Oklahoma, Ms. Ethel McCallie, has passed away. She was a great story teller and letter writer. The word ‘vivacious’ was probably invented to describe her. She missed her 100th birthday by eight months. She liked to tease her friend Esther Wrinkles about being her elder (by two months). It was a pleasure to know her and to know Esther, who passed away in January, 2013. Their vivid recollections of growing up in this part of the world provide a solid background and contrast for how things are today. What a gift it would be to have those dear ladies and many of their generation with us these days to guide us, to keep good manners appropriate and to help us keep perspective when things seem to be so chaotic. It would be great to have coffee with Esther again and talk politics. She stayed informed, had strong opinions, and had the strength of character to say that she could still care about people who believed differently. They were Champions like Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.”
Pete Proctor came down to Champion on Wednesday last. He had a flag to trade with a local who had come upon an enormous American flag in good condition. It may wind up flapping in the breeze on a tall flag pole in town somewhere. Meanwhile, the Champion will have a more manageable one to fly at home. Pete is very active in the VFW, officiating for Veterans funerals, and keeping area flags flying properly. He joined in with some of the regulars talking about the old days and the baseball games. “Robert had the best knuckleball.” Stan Lovan happened to stop by that day. His extensive knowledge of the area helped confirm the location of a place called Chicken Bristle. Wednesday is always exciting in Champion. Thursday is exciting in Vanzant, except for this one and the next one. The Thursday night Blue Grass Jam will resume on the 7th of January. By then the black eyed peas will have been digested and the New Year will be in full swing. Some good voices, guitars, banjos and fiddles, bass and the under-the-chin kind, are just the ticket for harmonious beginnings.
Former Ava area residents, now in Springfield, were honored by their grown daughters with a celebration of the birthdays and anniversary of their parents, Vicky and David Trippe. It was a glorious affair in the beautifully decorated Kentwood Hall as longtime friends reconnected and new friendships were made across the wide overlapping circles that this couple has generated. That great swinging band, Hot Mulch, now the Back to the Land Band, was back together again with some fine additions and some of the great old songs like “Ozark Mountain Mother Earth News Freak.” It says, “Well, I’m moving to the country where everything is fine. Gonna live in a dome and drink dandelion wine. When the collapse comes, I won’t get the blues. I’ll have all the back issues of the Mother Earth News. I’ll get myself a sweetie and a Volkswagens Van. See the Real estate man and buy me some land, a few acres cleared with lots of trees—a place we can fix up however we please. We’ll get our eggs from chickens and milk from a cow, a horse that plows, and a book that tells how, an organic garden growing comfrey and peas. We’ll get honey from our bees and fruit from our trees. Self-sufficient that’s the name of the game. Gonna get myself a system self-contained. A wind mill to give me my electricity, no phone in my dome, I’ll use ESP.” It was an amazing time back forty years ago as ‘back to the landers’ came pouring into the country, here and all over the Nation. They learned a lot of lessons, one being that local folks sometimes appear to be more rusticated and less sophisticated than they really are. The poor city slicker who thinks he might get one over on a native of these parts will rue the day he tried. The newcomers and the natives have laughed at each other and have been hornswoggled and helped in both directions, and have become friends and neighbors, have intermingled, intermarried and moved on and stayed on. Immigrants from the cities and the strife rife back then did not find it easy to be integrated and still are reminded subtly that there is a distinction. Everybody is from somewhere. For all the reasons that people the World over celebrate at this time of the year one of the best ones is “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men.”
Come down to the festive, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek and warm yourself around the ancient stove that has warmed newcomers and old timers for generations. It may be warm enough to dally out on the wide veranda of the Historic Emporium overlooking the Behemoth Bee Tree on the other side of the Square. Any Christmas carol or any good song that you feel like belting out will be caught upon the south wind and blown all over. Join the grateful chorus in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!
