Champion News

Champion Winter Finches

The internet is the latest thing to be called the ‘window to the world.’  We can go out on Google-earth and see pictures of any street address in America or China, Australia or Russia.  We can look at houses on the beach in Kennebunkport, Maine or at an address in Cabool, Missouri or our neighbors up on C Highway.  We have access to the whole world from our laptops, but the view out our own windows in the beautiful world of Champion is a real and present enchantment.  On a sunny Sunday after a dreary few days of cloud and cold, the everyday things, the ordinary things can look new or different.  A good housekeeper says to wash your dirtiest window twice a week.  To clarify, that means two windows a week—every week.  Depending on how many windows in your house…well, it does not matter.  Eventually all your windows will be clean-er.  Even through a dirty window, the purple finch is a glorious little bird.  It is a treat to have an uncloudy day, but a partly cloudy one with a brisk wind can bring unexpected visual pleasures as shadows race across the hills and fields.  Champion is a beautiful part of the world in all seasons.

A snowbird from Wyoming, enjoying the relative mildness of Champion winters, remarked at the number of birthday notices in The Champion News.  Some folks do not want any kind of mention of their birthdays, but probably none of them are children.  Eva Coyote, Kai, up in Portland celebrates on the 11th.  Skyline first grade student, Kennedy Hinote will celebrate on December 13th.  The 14th belongs to Spike Jones who was born in 1911.  His band was the ‘City Slickers’ and their music was zany and wonderful — very popular in the 1940s and 1950s.  He chewed gum and wore crazy plaid suits and played a cowbell xylophone on tunes like “That’s Amore.”  (He may rival The General as far as cowbell playing goes.)  Others sharing Spike’s birthday include 17 year old Xue Lynn of Champion, dear Judy T. Ing, who broke our hearts when she left us a few years ago, and 417 Photography’s Shannon Alexander up in Springfield.  Pre-kindergarten student, Lane Keller will have a birthday on the 16th.  Lane and his classmates at Skyline are excited about the Christmas program they will be performing on Thursday evening under the direction of Mrs. Casper.  One little Champion is going to be a reindeer.  These programs are always delightful and our precious children get a chance to be part of something big and brilliant that they will remember far into adulthood and maybe all the way to dotage.  Champion!

Our mailboxes are seeing a lot of action during this season.  Unexpected packages, annual Christmas letters from old friends full of their family news, and Christmas cards addressed to “TCN,” some with much appreciated financial support, mix in with the newspapers, bills and solicitations in the big mailbox down by the road.  Anytime of the year is appropriate to share some cookies with our intrepid USPS mail carriers.  They help us stay connected to the real world.  The champion@championnews.us mailbox found a note from our old friend Eulalia Jasmin who is off on an adventure in Latin America.  She loves the new music links in the posts at www.championnews.us and suggests “Cuando Calienta el Sol” as a song with universal appeal.  She says that her favorite rendition is by a group called ‘Los Panchos,’ but she thinks Champions might appreciate the Johnny Rodrigues version more because he sings part of it in English—“Love Me With All Your Heart.”  Sandy Halteman writes in from Osceola, saying “I just discovered The Champion News and so enjoyed reading it.”  Sandy thinks Champion looks like a wonderful community and plans a visit to our area soon.  It is a real gift to make new friends.  Gary Hutchison is an old friend living up in Mountain Grove.  He went to school at Champion for the first three years.  He was lucky enough to have Lorene Hick as his first grade teacher.  She always said he was her favorite student.  He sat on the front row and if he got sleepy he would just take a nap.  She never said a word about it.  Gary was not a big fan of Arthur Porter who replaced Ms. Hicks.  He did not like having to do the “do re mi” every morning.  Gary said, “…every blamed morning!”  He was also still holding a grudge over having to taste Limburger cheese at Porter’s insistence.  The principal reason for Gary’s call was to verify that Darrell Haden’s “All The Late News From the Courthouse” was still available on CD.  His aim was to get a copy for Wilma Hutchison, with whom he had just had a two hour conversation.  It is not at all difficult to have a two hour conversation with that gentleman.  Wilma will get her CD when she shows up at the next Vanzant Jam.  It sounds as if Gary will have a great family Christmas and he wished the same to all his Champion friends, and a happy New Year!  Meanwhile, Katelyn McConnell has included a nice piece about The Champion News in her wonderful blog, Ozarks Alive.  Thanks, Katelyn, and welcome to the new readers you bring with you.

Game cameras are capturing night time pictures of black bears in the woods around Champion.  A particularly big one up near Wolf Pen Hollow has neighborhood residents wary about roaming around after dark.  They have read the ‘Be Bear-Aware’ material and proceed with caution, clapping hands and singing loud.  Winter will officially arrive on the 21st and daylight will begin to last longer, but the bears may be out any time.  Christmas excitement is building.  Travel plans are being finalized, menus are being planned, decorations are going up and special thoughtful gifts are being conjured up.  All of the holiday hoopla and the bountiful wildlife out our windows may, for a few moments at a time, take our attention away from our great National absurdities.  One Champion thinks these tumultuous days are reminiscent of 1928.  That is when Jimmy Rogers wrote “Blue Yodel,” so while times were rough then and got rougher during the next few years, music proved, as it does today, to make hearts lighter.  Come down to the wild, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek and sit around the ancient wood stove in the Re-creation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square.  Join friends to discuss wildlife, holidays, music, the Great Depression, current events and the genuine beauty of Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Shadows race across Champion hills and fields.