Champion News

CHAMPION—May 11, 2009

        In Champion, as well as in many nations around the world, the second Sunday in May is celebrated as Mother’s Day.  A woman named Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrase in 1912, and Woodrow Wilson signed the Congressional Bill that made it a law.  Flowers and cards, phone calls and appropriate little gifts were the usual fair in Champion.  Mothers were touched at the thoughtfulness of the young ones while remembering their own good examples for the role.  Foster and Kalyssa Wiseman came to hang out with their Grammie and Ms. Powell’s grandson, Bryan, spent the day with her in Champion.  Another of her grandsons, Travis, had been to see her late last week together with his wife and their two little ones.  Children are wonderful, grandchildren are terrific, and great grandchildren are just amazing!  Champion!

        Friday’s storms caused damage all around the country.  The post office in Norwood lost some of its roof and there were many big trees blown down.  Some were broken but many were just blown out of the rain soaked ground.  There will be a lot of clean-up going on for a long time.  Champions will take it in stride and continue to be Grateful that it was not worse.  The broad expanse of Lonnie Krider Memorial Drive was only lightly sprinkled with debris and so when Bud Hutchison’s trail ride came trough on Saturday things appeared to be entirely orderly.  Only nine made the ride this year.  One was heard to make a remark about ‘fair weather cowboys’ indicating that threatening weather had caused some to stay home this time.  Some might have been dealing with storm damage.  The same amount of enjoyment that the forty or so riders had last year was concentrated on this year’s small group and they uniformly reported having had a delightful ride.  It is a 13 mile round trip from Champion to Drury and back.  “May your horse never stumble.  May your cinch never break.  May your belly never grumble or your heart ever ache.”  That’s a good cowboy sentiment.  Bob Heard makes this ride as often as he can.  He lives over forty miles west of Springfield, but gets down this way whenever Bud’s got a ride going on.  A couple of weeks ago the two of them and four others made a 40 mile trip from Emerson’s Trout Farm through Vera Cruz and then over to Champion and Cold Springs and back again.  Bob says that Bud knows all the roads.  It took the best part of a beautiful day and they had a good time.

        Let the Good Times Roll!  That was the sentiment earlier in the week when a couple of couples came to Champion to kick up their heels.  Galen and Angilee Neher and Wayne and Doris Moore chose Champion as the place to celebrate their 64^th wedding anniversary.  They live in Mountain Grove but sought out Champion’s charm to commemorate their double wedding ceremony, which must have occurred in 1945!  Among the four of them there is a brother and sister, and the rest are all mischboucha (related but not blood kin) but Champions failed to find out which ones were which, though there are only a couple of possibilities.  Still, possibilities are always ripe for a good time in Champion.  Niagara Falls may have its spectacle, its honeymoon attraction, noise, commercial development and international border, but Champion has its Bright Side!

        Only 1360 points separated high and low at the Fortnight Bridge game hosted by Champion on Saturday.  Charlene Dupre sat in for the Vera Cruz player who was busy with the Audubon bird count.  She walked off with $1.50 as the low scorer.  Champion won $2.00 in nickels which means that during the course of the evening there were twenty unsuccessful contracts bid.  Sisters, Charlene and Linda, finished up their day with the bridge game after having had a busy day at the Plant Place and Gift Corner in Norwood.  The season is full blown for planting vegetable and flower gardens.  The 14^th and 15th will be good days to plant late beets, potatoes, onions, carrots and other root crops.  That’s according to Linda’s Almanac.  May is called the Corn Planting Moon, but the ‘signs’ will not be favorable again for above ground crops until the 24^th.  The wet weather has some running late getting things planted.  So far, Dustin’s Grandpa’s saying about rain on Easter Sunday means rain the next seven Sundays in a row…is turning out to be pretty close.  The first Sunday after Easter was dry until after midnight, but then it came a nice rain.  Champions will not complain about two or three more damp Sundays.  Champions don’t ever complain about the weather!

        An interesting article in a national newspaper talks about a 61 year-old Vietnam veteran who was drafted at age 19.  He went to the service willingly and did his duty.  He came home with a bullet in his head, a fairly useless left arm and a dragging foot.  He finished his education and became a civil engineer.  Now he teaches drafting at a high school in an economically depressed area.  He is a patient person, likes teaching and is well liked by the students.  His classroom is located on the hallway where the military recruiters meet with the students and where the Junior ROTC members meet.  When the No Child Left Behind law came into effect, the military services were given the same access to students as college recruiters.  The teacher loves his school and his students and said that in a way they have become his children.  He says that he recognizes the need for national defense, but that he feels that high schools students are too young and unformed to really question what they are told and that the intensity of the recruitment seems very like exploitation, particularly in low income areas of the country.  The teacher researched the law to determine to what extent the schools are required to assist the military and found that there is a good deal of latitude.  “I did a very good job for the military, but it’s torn me up for my whole life.”  He grew up in a small town and is content with his life as a good husband and grandfather, but he is still troubled by his military experience.  He wants the kids to know that it’s not a joke.  He has Love and Gratitude for those who serve and those who have served and for those who will.

        Guy Clark, popular song-writer of “Home Grown Tomatoes” and many other worth while songs wrote words to Soldiers Joy 1864:  “First I thought a snake had got me it happened dreadful quick.  T’was a bullet bit my leg, right off I got sick………..Gimme some of that Soldier’s Joy, you know what I mean.  I don’t want to hurt no more my leg is turning green.”  The words seem to fit into the well-known fiddle tune, though they are lengthy and gory.  A person might just have to sit on the porch at Henson’s Store and pat his foot to mental music sometimes.  Any other words to Soldiers Joy are welcome at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or at Champion News.  Listen to a nice version of When Johnny Comes Marching Home at www.championnews.us.  Ramble around on that site to find a few more songs and lots of nice pictures of Champions—Looking on the Bright Side!