Champion News

Sometime after the next cold snap, some Champions will put out hummingbird feeders and will keep a steady watch for their southern friends. As things bud and sprout and bloom, so do the spirits of winter weary old folks ready for one warm day after another. Last Thursday marked the last snowfall for the month of March with a few flakes falling in Mountain Grove and Ava. A gathering of a great gaggle of girlfriends at Rockbridge happened that day, as well, and, reportedly, enjoyed a wonderful time together. A couple of individuals missed out by taking the wrong roads where the bridges were awash with flood waters and debris. By the time they corrected their various routes, the party was over. Alas! They will not miss the next chance to be in the company of seldom seen sisters.

Another party was much enhanced that evening, however, with the long awaited return of a favorite fiddler to the Vanzant jam. He was in the company of his sweet sister, Sally. They were well received and much entreated to come back often. It is a long drive for them after dark, which is what keeps some Champions from the newly established Tuesday Jam over at Roy’s Store in Dora. They get started about six in the evening and carry on until nine or so. Gina Hollingshead, who plays the only electric instrument–the bass, said she was surprised at how many people local to that area are coming with their acoustic instruments to join in. Bertie’s pies may also have something to do with the great turn out. The whole country is hungry for pie and music, both good medicine. Beverly Emery’s favorite is lemon merengue. Thursday, the seventh, at the Vanzant Jam, she will have that birthday song sung to her with enthusiasm by her many friends. She will most likely be on the look out for a gag gift from her irrepressibly silly sister. Irrepressible.

Twin Chefs in Kentucky are irrepressible as they teach us how to make pigs in the blanket. Mickey, the twin on the left, has been a visitor to the area on a number of occasions. It turns out he is married to the irrepressible Cathie Alsup Reilly of the local Alsups, kin to many folks in the Denlow/Vanzant/Champion triumvirate of desirable locations.

Windowsills bristle with seedlings of peppers, marigolds and milkweed waiting to be transplanted to the garden. The almanac says the best days in April for that activity are 16, 17, 25, 26, and 29. Champions generally figure May 10 to be the last frost day, but we have been fooled in the past. They say that it is easier to fool someone than to convince them they have been fooled. When it comes to gardening though, the truth is indisputable. Would it were so else wise world wide! Children, visiting from the city, have had a good work-out pushing wheelbarrows of manure and stacking firewood. It often happens that when we have help, we work harder than we do working by ourselves. A pleasant week-end and good neighbor help has some old Champions looking for the horse liniment on Monday morning and they do not have horses! Champions—Looking on the Bright Side!