Champion News

CHAMPION—June 1, 2008

        Good neighbors are to Champion what strawberries are to shortcake—just some of the very best part!  Wes and Pat Smith came over and plowed Louise and Wilburn Hutchison’s garden for them and a few days later Sharon and Farel Sikes came over and plowed it again.  Meanwhile Joe Moskaly came and cut the weeds out of the fencerow and people are calling and stopping by just to see what they can do.  What a pleasure to live in such a berg!  Wilburn is feeling better and Louise is perking along with her regular pleasant and graceful proficiency.

        Champions are sprucing up, fluffing up, shinning up and generally spiffing up for company.  With the price of scrap metal going through the ceiling these days one noticed that a lot of old horse drawn history is being hauled off, but also that it is still nice to see things getting kind of cleaned up a little bit.  Some people don’t ever have to clean up for company because they live clean and orderly lives.  Young Dusty Mike’s Mom wouldn’t leave a dirty dish in the sink over night for anything!  Other Champions are not so fastidious.  They say that it is not hypocritical or putting on of airs to present guest with a cleaner circumstance than they would regularly enjoy themselves, but that it is a polite gesture that reflects respect for honored guests.  In any event, there are big and fancy doings afoot and Champion will delight in a hosting people from near and far who will come for joyful, sweet and romantic nuptial reasons.  Other people like Sophia and Penelope will come all the way from Texas just to play in the dirt and have fun with the Old Folks–also sweet.

        A bad tooth can have a profound effect on a person’s overall health.  The BBC says that five billion people worldwide suffer from tooth decay.  Sometimes a person will endure a toothache as a way to acquire understanding of another’s pain or as a way to keep perspective in the presence of a difficult houseguest.  When at last the persistent discomfort is gone, the relief can be glorious.  Medicines can be pretty tricky though, as an old Champion woman discovered recently.  A person needs to read all that paperwork that comes with those prescriptions and pay heed.  Those pharmaceutical companies aren’t just writing that stuff to use ink.  A swig of the over-the-counter cough medicine on top of a painkiller can put a person to sleep for a couple of days.  In the big world outside they call that “overdose,” or “OD.”  It may be that the old girl was just looking for a little rest.  It was a perilous enough situation to give her serious pause.  Old friend Foxfire Jack Ryan recommended the book, Worst Pills Best Pills, The Older Adults Guide to Avoiding Drug Induced Death or Illness.  Public Citizen Health Research Group published it in1988.  Uncle Al, The Lonesome Plowboy, liked to tell the story about how Eleanor Roosevelt was accosted by a rude drunk who told her that she was ugly.  “Sir, you are drunk!” said Ms. R., to which the fellow replied, “Yes Mam, but I’ll be over it in the morning!”  This anecdote has also been attributed to Winston Churchill (not concerning Mrs. Roosevelt, however) and is only used here as an example of being able to get over things or not.  Getting over a toothache often requires a dentist and all are grateful that they are no longer in the barbering trade and ‘bouncing’ teeth as a sideline.

        Another posthumous Medal of Honor has been awarded.  This time to a 19-year-old young man who threw himself on a grenade to save his four fellow soldiers.  He was doing what his Nation has asked of him and he did it willingly with pride.  He has Love and Gratitude coming to him and all his bereft survivors.  The death toll in Iraq now of just U.S. Service Personnel is 4086.

        Esther Wrinkles has already put up enough gooseberries from her last year’s birthday gooseberry bushes to make a pie!  Lucky with be the guest who gets to share that treat!  Louise says that the wild gooseberries on her place are really going to bear well.  Faye hasn’t found too many yet.  Maybe they will get together.  Linda’s Almanac from over at The Plant Place in Norwood says that transplanting will be very good from the 3^rd through the 9^th and that the 6^th and 7^th will be excellent days to plant crops that bear their yield above the ground.  Gardens are really looking good around Champion, though it has been too wet to work the ground much in some spots.  The First Ripe Tomato in Champion Contest may have some hot contention this year.

        “That’s alright, Dad.  Everybody makes a mistake sometimes.”  So said Foster to his Dad when he apologized for having used a harsh word in a tense traffic situation the other day.  The sentiment has broad application when it comes to getting a tractor stuck in a mud hole or not having a jack in a truck with a flat tire.  Champions are generally a forgiving lot, but they have very good memories.  “All water under the bridge,” one Champion descendant calls the old days.  She sent pictures of long time residents of the area known as “Riley Holler.”  As new people move into the community and work to make a place their own, they are just like the people who did the same thing before them.  Everyone works to put his stamp on the land, but the land endures while people come and go.  There is much to be learned from the past.  A person might do well to turn the TV off every now and again and go hunt up an old timer.

        Barbara Krider and her lovely granddaughters, Elizabeth and Alexandria, will be sashaying into the neighborhood early next week to help the young Champion couple celebrate their connubial commitment.  When Bert, the cab driver, and Ernie, the cop, harmonized in the rain when George Bailey married Mary Hatch, their song was I Love You Truly.  Whatever the song, hearts will be light.  Singing releases those endorphins that help the immune system fight disease and depression.

        Describe some fun with Old Folks at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  Applicable antidotes can be e-mailed to Champion News.  Release some endorphins on the porch at Henson’s Store with some songs like By the Light of the Silvery Moon, Get Me To The Church On Time, or Oh Promise Me.  New beginnings, romance and optimism are all the Vogue as Champions are always looking on the bright side!