Champion News

CHAMPION–December 22, 2014

The busy Saturday before Christmas found the Strong family stopping in at The Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square in Down Town Champion. Billy and Leigh Strong are the parents of eleven year old Alyssa, a sixth grade student at Skyline, eight year old Heidi who is in the third grade, and Billy who is six and a kindergarten student. Heidi and Billy reported that they had done some good Christmas shopping at school with Tiger Bucks that they had earned for good behavior. Billy was particularly excited about a gift he has for his Dad. The days ahead promised to be busy ones for them as there was baking to do and popcorn yet to string. They planned to enjoy Christmas Eve with one grandmother, Christmas day at home, and the following Sunday with their other grandmother. Their parents were almost as excited as the children knowing the surprises in store. Merry Christmas to the Champion Strong family!

        In the way that home is the most beloved of all human concepts, so Christmas is held up by much of the world as the best day of the year.  It is the much longed for day when expectations are sure to be met, when families are gathered and memories are made to go along with the photographs that are taken for proof.  It is the reference point for family milestones:  “It was that year when thus and such happened…, you remember…our last Christmas with Mother.” There is a lot of room in the Champion heart for sentimentality and nostalgia with plenty to spare for being mindful of the moment as it happens.  The smells and tastes, the racket and music, the laughter, hugs and tears add weight to the reverence of the acknowledgement of the special day.  “God bless us, every one” on the Bright Side!  This year the DC Herald has made arrangements with a talented local potter, Louise Walker of the Crystal Lake neighborhood, to provide gifts to all the community correspondents.  Like the communities themselves, each piece is unique, beautiful and useful.  Thank you from Champion!

        Christmas is a perfect time for fence mending and forgiveness.  Sometimes those fences are mended not because the injured party has become forgiving, but, as often as not, because he is weary of carrying the burdens of grievances and remembering his injury.  The grudge is surely the heaviest of all loads.  Time can be a factor in forgiveness.  Blows can be softened or hardened in memory.  Some may be motivated to forgiveness by a magnanimous righteousness that comes with perceived vindication.  “See?  I was not wrong.”  It may be that a person eventually has to say, “I was wrong,” and adjust his countenance and tone accordingly.  The human being is an inscrutable creature.  However it comes to be, the warm embrace of renewed filial feeling is a preciousness….a gift for forgiver and forgiven alike.  If some postpone that reconciliation beyond the grave or eschew it altogether, it may just indicate that they are at peace with themselves living a conscious life.

        Skyline archer, Morgan Whitacre had a perfect score at the recent tournament in Crane.  Congratulations, Morgan!  Pope Francis had his birthday on December 10th.  He gave 400 well-made sleeping bags to homeless people in Rome.  What a guy.  Second grader Destiny Surface shares her birthday with Mary Goolsby.  Mary and her sweetie, Bob Berry, have moved away from the area, but they are much and pleasantly remembered by the many friends they left behind.  Logan Brown is a 7th grade student at Skyline who shares his birthday with Skyline VFD Auxiliary’s Chris Dailey on the Winter Solstice.  Days are already getting longer by the 23rd when the dynamic and beautiful Sharon Sikes celebrates her birthday.  Willard Hall is in the 7th grade.  His birthday is on Christmas Day.  He has probably figured out how to deal with that.  The 27th is the birthday of Corinne Zappler, a most loved and appreciated Champion great niece.  Logan Hull is in the second grade at Skyline.  His birthday is on the 29th.  He can stretch the giving season out for a few more days.  Eli Oglesby is a Champion grandson who celebrates on the 30th and will be 10 years old.  His little sister, Emerson Rose, and all his Champion cousins will be singing that song to him.  The year ends with the birthday of Denlow and Vanzant’s most transformational personality, sage, philanthropist, world traveler, ambassador of Ozark culture to a confused and hungry world…The General Himself!  Around the globe people will be raising a glass.  Salutations! Cheers!  Slange i va!  Happy New Year!

        Ms. Ayn Thrope includes a dire warning in with her Christmas card.  (Notice that she is spelling her name Ayn now like Ayn Rand.)  She addresses those she calls ‘sedentary sofa loafers’ and suggests that they get up and get involved in the ‘orenda.’  She explains that that is the mystical force present in all people that empowers them to affect the world or to effect change in their own lives.  “Oli Garkey’s robber barons will have a pig farm on top of your spring before you know it as a result of ‘The Right to Farm.’  What nonsense!   Now ‘The Right to Work’ is another shameful thing.  It is a corporate scam to control the worker by keeping wages low, work places less safe and keeping benefits and insurance out of reach.  Surely someone will introduce the ‘Right to Stay Uninformed.’”  To her credit, she does think that by paying attention and being willing to engage in some productive dialogue a general raising of consciousness will be an improvement.  She thinks Winter Soldier Hearings might be appropriate about now.  Other seasons’ greetings in the champion@championnews.us mail box are full of optimism for the year ahead and reminders of all the reasons for the celebrations.  Merry Christmas back at all you lovely well–wishers!

        The last Tuesday of the month will be the 30th and Angela Souder with the Douglas County Health Department will be at Henson’s Grocery and Gas from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. checking blood pressures and doing body mass index readings.  She brings the lung age machine with her and this time she will be doing blood sugar tests as well.  It is a free service and a valuable one.

        Christmas in the kitchen has one old Champion offering advice and instruction to young cooks who are about to put their hands in the dough.  “Blow your nose.  Wash your face and comb your hair.  Secure your sleeves and wash your hands and dry them.  Then you can knead the pizza or bread dough, cut out the cookies, or ice the cake.”  Julia Child suggested that a cook should never do anything in the kitchen by himself that he would not do with people watching.  That way you will never embarrass yourself and the people you are feeding will have no reason to not enjoy their food.  That means if you taste the soup for seasoning, do not put your face over the pot and please use a clean spoon every time.  Some great cooking has been going on in the neighborhood and the many holiday recipes circulating on the internet are causing a few old Champions to be gaining cyber weight.  The Cowboy, the barber, Chad’s dad, the farmer, various Smiths and Stones, Bob and Ethel, strays from Almartha, Elmer and the gang are joining prominent Champions and prominent girlfriends around the stove and cookie jar for seasonal stories and fun.  The Christmas tree in the meeting room is festive and cheerful.  “Tis the season to be jolly” in Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!