Champion News

CHAMPION—December 18, 2006

        Look out Champion!  The community is about to be overrun by grandchildren!  Scarcely have residents recovered from the onslaught of Hamilton and Powell grandchildren and great grandchildren, but here come Dakota and Dillon Watts accompanied by their parents from Tennessee and Foster Emmet and his cousin Eli are very likely to be around.  It will be noisy and busy with adventures on the farm.  There will be great feasts and plenty left overs and dishwashing.  When there is a big crowd, particularly if there enough women, those kinds of chores don’t seem to take up too much time.  There is an old song, however, that says:

“ Oh the kinfolks are a comin’,

yes, there comin’ by the dozens

and they’re eatin’ everything from soup to hay.

And right after dinner, they’re not lookin’ any thinner

and you can hear them say:

‘Ya’ll come!  Ya’ll come!

Ya’ll come to see us now and then.

Ya’ll come!  Ya’ll come!

Oh.  You all come to see us when you can.’ ”

“Now, Grandma’s a wishin’

that they’d all come to the kitchen

and help do the dishes right away,

But when they all start to leavin’,

even though she is a grievin’

you can still hear Grandma say,

‘Ya’ll come! Ya’ll come!

Ya’ll come to see us now and then.

Ya’ll come!  Ya’ll come!

Oh.  You all come to see us when you can.’ ”

        It goes on and on like that.  Fortunately the melody is pleasant.  Up on Clever Creek there will be a big influx of nieces and grandnieces who are doctors and students and musicians.  What can you do?  Some of those who are not expecting to have family visiting Champion for the holidays are going off elsewhere to find some.  The community is on the move.  Everybody seems to be full of Love and Gratitude at this time of year.

        A stranger to these parts happened along and noticed a long line of men filing slowly in through the gate of one of the local cemeteries.  A curious sort, he walked past the line of men until he finally came up to a new grave.  Beside it stood a man who was holding a small dog.  “Who is buried here?” inquired the stranger.  “It’s my mother-in-law” replied the man with the dog.”  “She died very suddenly after this little dog bit her.”  The stranger thought for a long moment and then asked, “Would you consider selling that little dog?”  The man with the dog said that he just couldn’t possibly sell it.  “Well, would you lease it?” pressed the stranger.  “Yes, I would lease it,” the man responded, “but you’ll have to go to the end of that line.”

        That is just a flat out yarn told the other day by a veteran yarn spinner.  Champion is a great part of the country for yarns, and songs, and sayings of all sorts.  Mrs. E. Powell said that if there was a couple having trouble in their marriage her aunt Frances Nettelton would say, “That’s their possum.  Let them wool it.”  By that she was saying to leave them alone to work out their problems.  This long time resident of Champion also noted that since World War II the country has really gone downhill.  Part of her point was that while technology has advanced, people are not so neighborly as they were back when everybody had to work together in the “war-effort.”  Neighbors over in Brixie had the opportunity to view the movie, An Inconvenient Truth on Saturday.  The message of the movie seems to be that the whole world has a possum to wool.  Here is part of an e-mail response to an inquiry made about the event:  “The movie was at the old Brixey church. ….  Steve Bennet, who moved back in the area after being gone for many years (and used to own the Gainesville paper), got up and made a passionate plea about how to stop the folks around here from clear cutting (he couldn’t believe how much more had been done in his absence).

        The movie made the rate of change expected in the next 20 to 50 years to seem overwhelming, and yet also showed how the most basic and simple conservation efforts do have quite an impact.  David Haenke made a plea that globalization and the huge amount of energy it takes to move products all around the world calls for de-centralization of goods and services to even begin to address the problem.

        On the local level it was discussed how the big pitch for ethanol was a diversion (too much petroleum input).  It was brought out that trees are our only proven method for taking large amounts of Co2 out of the atmosphere, and so how do we protect Ozark forests?  Goats (in a reasonable amount) were brought up as the better livestock alternative, and the use and production of more forest products, including the use of wood by-products as a source of fuel alternative (though the technology isn’t quite there yet).  Anyway, that’s some of the scoop.

        I think the best image I took from the movie was that of the Earth as a big breathing organism, giving oxygen in the Spring/Summer, and releasing Co2 in the Fall/Winter, and in many other ways is self-regulating.  Take Care,  Bob”  This Bob has a new grandson, born December 12^th, by the name of Braxton Liebert..  Grandparents make excellent world citizens as they are always looking out for the best interest of their most precious young ones.

        Neighbors in Norwood are distressed to learn that Judy Boykin of Glen’s Propane has had an accident Monday evening that resulted in a broken hip and broken hand.  She’ll be home from St. John’s in a few days with plenty on her plate.  She’s kind of a dynamo.  It’s hard to hold her down.

        The news this week has run a little long, with the warnings, songs, yarns, sayings, movie reviews, letters, observations, birth announcements and accident reports.  Any of those things or any other thing of interest to Champions is welcome from readers at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO. 65717, at the Champion Store, or at Champion News.