Champion News

Mayapple

May Day is on the way. It is coming with warm weather and carries with it lots of history. Recent history has to do with the struggles and gains made by workers and the labor movement that gave us ideas like the forty-hour work week and child labor laws. Ancient history carried over in many places around the world celebrates the return of spring and, in some places, requires singing and dancing and cake. Willie Nelson said, “We are the same. There is no difference anywhere in the world. People are people. They laugh, cry, feel, and love, and music seems to be the common denomination that brings us all together. Music cuts through all boundaries and goes right to the soul.”

The Prize

Bob and Mary will soon be taking in a couple of musical shows in Branson after a fine dinner out. They already have a beautiful basket of flowers hanging in the garage where they keep Bob’s bright red 1946 Studebaker pickup truck, the vintage of which has special significance for Bob. The tickets to the shows and the flowers in the basket were part of the prize for the “Sponsors Choice” in a recent rally sponsored by the Lakeland Pharmacy in Willow Springs. They will kick up their heels and show us how to have a good time. Bob and Mary are about the cutest couple since John and Marsha. Their good friend, Glen Brandstedder, was reading The Champion News about seven o’clock on Thursday evening and decided he could still make it over to the Vanzant jam. He arrived in time to hear some good tunes and to visit with friends seldom seen these days.

Chickadee

Marge Carter writes that it is time to head back to Wyoming. She and Doug will leave on May 1st. They have just seen their first hummingbirds. She said, “We have three birdhouses mounted in the yard. One has a chickadee momma sitting on her eggs. Another has bluebirds. Two have hatched, two to go. The third has a nest built but no eggs. Must have decided to lay elsewhere.” Marge and Doug are another cute couple and their Champion friends will look forward to seeing them when they get back this fall. She will have to make cookies for him for both trips–going and coming.

Driving over to another county gives you the opportunity to see how their dogwoods responded to the 23° temperatures last week. Do they have Mayapples up there in Wright County on their beautiful country lanes? A person does not have to go far from home to be in a brand-new place. We live in an interesting part of the world. Probably everyone everywhere thinks that about his home place, but we know it. It is exciting, however, to find out how much we do not know–say even about Mayapples. With just a little study, we learn they grow in colonies via underground rhizomes and that every part of them is toxic except the ripe fruit. With a little luck, we could run into those folks at Teeter Creek Herbs and learn from expert, Bob Liebert, or another herbalist, Eddie Richardson, who has recently located somewhere around Norwood. They could tell us about the medicinal properties of Mayapples and how they go about turning plants into medicine. We have interesting people in our lives. Having been away from each other for so long, it is exciting to see old, i.e., longtime, friends and new ones. Everyone can teach us some of what we do not know. A friend said, “I love people that have no idea how wonderful they are and just wander around making the world a better place.” We know how lucky we are here in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!

Bob’s 1946 Studebaker pickup truck.