CHAMPION—April 10, 2017
Champion Spring
Spring is all over us here in Champion with the lilacs, the spirea, tulips, ajuga, hyacinths, the wild phlox and the domesticated creeping phlox, the waning daffodils and narcissus, the red buds, the flowering quince, the wild plumbs, serviceberry, apples, peaches and pears, the dogwoods and the mushrooms! We are awash in the beauty of nature and grateful for it. Back during the cold months the Prominent Champion Girlfriend was asked by her beau what she wanted for her birthday and she said, “A Spring Celebration!” Her birthday has passed and her celebration is on the way– May 6th, a Saturday, about noon on the Square in Downtown Champion. It will be a community event for Champions far and wide to enjoy. Everyone is welcome. There will be fried fish, hamburgers, hot dogs, coleslaw and baked beans and whatever you bring. Bring a dish, your lawn chairs and your enthusiasm for friends and neighbors in this lovely setting. It is not a fund raiser, but in keeping with the flair of the charming instigator, it will be a Fun raiser. Champion! Y’all come.
Other birthday celebrations these days will be for Dillon Watts on the 12th of April. He is a Tennessee banjo player and Champion grandson just turning 18—practically grown. Bob Berry will have his birthday on the 14th. The folks at Vanzant have been having a party for him and Mary every Thursday since they got home. Dustin, daddy of Caron and Drayson, shares the 15th (Income Tax Day) with his aunt-in-law, Champion Vivian Floyd, and with G. G. Jones, now over Stockton way (uh huh, uh huh). These three and Skyline second grade student, Wyatt Lakey, will all be having some big time fun that day. Wyatt is going to a great school. They have some new school board members and this week the middle school students are taking a trip to Jefferson City. There will be no school on Friday or Monday for the Easter holiday. Mill Pond crawdad queen Olivia Trig Mastin, who lives up in Springfield, will have her birthday on the 16th. She may be back this summer for another go at it. Dave Thompson has a birthday on the 17th. He is being much missed at the Vanzant Jam, hopes are he will be back soon with his Quebec girl singing, “Oh, lost river, now I’m coming back to the potbellied stove where the fire wood’s all stacked.” On the 19th that great love song, “Is That You, Myrtle?” will go out to Myrtle Harris on her special day. She has relocated to Seymour but makes it back home from time to time. Happy Birthday all you Champions! A wonderful find for music appreciators on the internet are the You Tube videos of Herbie Johnston and his fiddle. You can see him there with the Possum Trot Bluegrass folks in Willow Springs and with Blue Steel Rail and Bootheel Bluegrass back in 2013. He knows all the great old tunes and can keep tempo for any wandering amateur. His fans will be glad when he is through with his day job someday.
Many Champions are old enough to remember Ralph Edwards and “Truth or Consequences,” the popular game show that started out on the radio in about 1940. It found its way on to television all the way up until the late 1980s. Truth or Consequences, New Mexico changed its name from Hot Springs back in 1950. There are still ten commercial hot springs bathing spas there and a fountain, across the street from the post office by the Geronimo Springs Museum, that provides a place for visitors to sit and relax while soaking their feet in the town’s famous hot mineral waters. Some folks are having a hard time relaxing these days as they contemplate the nature of truth and the consequences of the alternative. No amount of soaking can soothe the wounds caused by the current serial assaults on truth. Truth is as vital a part of the civic, social and intellectual culture of the country as justice and liberty. According to a respected newspaper, “Our civilization is premised on the conviction that such a thing as truth exists, that it is knowable, that it is verifiable, that it exists independently of authority or popularity and that at some point — and preferably sooner rather than later — it will prevail.” We are dependent on ‘reliable’ sources from a variety of points of view to determine for ourselves what we believe to be true. Admiral William McRaven was the commander of the Joint Specials Operations Command that captured and killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011. He had a 36-year career as a Navy Seal and he knows something about what an enemy actually is. He said recently, “We must challenge the statement and sentiment that the news media is the enemy of the American people. This sentiment may be the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.” He went on to say, “Flaws and all, I believe that the free press is our country’s most important institution.” The old game show was light=hearted and the consequences were inconsequential and humorous–not so in real life these days. An Old Champion opines, “What is amazing is that people, whom you may love and care about, can believe the opposite thing that you believe and believe that other thing with the same fervor and sense of conviction and correctness and rectitude as you do. And, just as you may think of them, they may consider you to be ignorant, ill-informed, lazy, and the product of intellectual depravation, with a complete lack of common sense and no willingness at all to be enlightened.” She goes on to say that the most dangerous liars are the ones who think they are telling the truth.
Elmer said never eat possum fat, that it is bad and bad for you. Bear fat, however, is like jelly and you can eat all of it you want. This information came out as part of a conversation concerning young groundhogs and raccoons and their delectableness. It also turns out that a tanned groundhog hide cut into thin strips will make excellent shoelaces. Elmer said good shoe laces could also be made out of a particular kind of eel that lives in Louisiana swamps. These eels have short little legs, and the shoestrings, if done right, will outlast several pairs of shoes. Such was the excitement in the meeting room at the Historic Emporium the other day. Young Chase was conspicuously absent at the Wednesday gathering. It seems that he has had an ear infection and a Mom with a cold! They had some farm help show up to give them a rest and, hopefully, they will both be feeling much better soon. We are reminded that one cannot tell just by looking how another person is feeling. Often people suffer in silence and put on brave faces and keep their health problems to themselves. It is a Champion kind of idea to just be kind to everyone.
Feeders are going up in preparation for the arrival of humming birds. In years past they have arrived on April 23rd, but last year the first scout was seen on April 1st. They may come in with the Easter bunny. There is a lot of excitement this time of the year connected with the swift passage of time. Come down to the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek any time, but put May 6th on your calendar for sure. You will be in excellent company celebrating Spring, “Where the mockingbird is singing in the lilac bush…” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!
