Champion News

CHAMPION—June 22, 2015

        At last summer is here.  The solstice moon in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter has overseen the arrival of the prime season of the year.  Hay is down, drying in the fields; floodwaters are receding; peas and new potatoes, squash, greens and tomatoes are coming off.  Morning dew evaporates in a haze and mysterious mists grace valley floors at the end of the day.  Champions will be making the most of them as each successive day gets a little shorter than the last and the seasons roll on.  In the midst of the appreciation, many of the old guys being celebrated on Fathers’ Day looked at their sons and sons-in-law to see what the next generation has going for it in terms of paternal goodness.  They can be pleased with the results of the example they set whether or not it was a good one.  Young men have learned well from their own fathers how to be and how not to be.  Grandchildren are lucky people in Champion.

        Linda Krider Watts of Murfreesboro, Tennessee and Sierra Parsons of Portland, Oregon share the Summer Solstice as their birthday.  Linda grew up in Champion and gets back over this way as often as she can.  Sierra has grandparents living west of Ava who are amazed that their first grandchild is already eighteen years old.  Elizabeth Warren’s birthday is June 22nd.  She was born in Oklahoma in 1949, and is a U.S. Senator for Massachusetts who helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and who is working to make the big banks behave.  Douglas County’s own Cinita Brown shares the day with Senator Warren.  She knows the history of the area like no other.  Alyssa Strong will be in the seventh grade at Skyline when school starts up in August.  Her birthday is June 23rd.  The 24th is for Prekindergarten student Easton Shannon.  He will be 4 years old.  The 25th is special for Nick Massey and Sherry Bennet.  Nick was part of the Seven Springs group that came from all around the country to settle in the Ozarks in the early 1970s.  He was the fellow who pointed out the Solstice moon with Venus and Jupiter at the Solstice Celebration on Saturday night.  There was a nighttime rainbow in the picture as well—a magic moment.  Sherri Bennet is sharing her musical talent and her beautiful smile all around the country.  Find her on Thursday evening over in Vanzant where the fun is going on.  Devon Scott will be in the third grade and will be eleven years old on the 26th.  The 28th is still remembered for Esther Wrinkles.  Her Skyline Fire Department friends are missing her as preparations are underway for the summer picnic.  Champion Eva Powell who is a great rememberer of birthdays and anniversaries will have her own birthday on the 29th.  KZ88 radio personality, Butch Kara, also celebrates his birthday that day.  He has a recipe for Hodgkin’s Mill gingerbread with sour cherries that sounds almost too good.  Just hearing about it one Champion said, “My ears are salivating!”  Faith Ann Lansdown had a 13th birthday slumber party at her house over the week end.  Her mom said, “Cheers to Daddy Terry and I as we enter the TEEN years once again!”  Happy Birthday to all you lovely, interesting people.

        The Skyline VFD Auxiliary met recently to get a start on picnic planning.  Ruth Hamilton has pieced a quilt of the popular 1930s pattern, Broken Dishes.  It takes a lot of four inch blocks to make an 80 x 92 inch quilt.  She says that it is every color under the sun and her Auxiliary friends are looking forward to having it on display down at Henson’s Grocery and Gas in Champion.  Look for the announcement that it is there.  There will be good pictures on The Champion News facebook page.  Everyone misses Esther’s quilt ticket selling ability.  Marilyn Alms says that the Douglas County Historical Society has a quilt that one of their members made for a quilt raffle for a fund-raiser for the Douglas County Museum at Ava.  She says they have never done this before.  They will have their drawing this fall during the Glade Top Trail Picnic and Tour in October.  Betty Thomas is most likely working on her quilt for the Pioneer Descendants Gathering which is usually the first week in October.  Quilt lovers and communities willing to support each other will be buying quilt tickets one from another.  This is a nice place to live.  Back to the Skyline VFD Picnic—it will be August 7th and 8th this year.  A meeting of the Auxiliary is scheduled for the 8th of July at Henson’s G & G.  Auxiliary meetings start at 6:30 and anyone in the fire district is welcome to attend to see how the community goes about getting the picnic done, or anyone interested in actually doing some of that hard work is welcome to attend to get some good ideas about how to help.  The Skyline VFD, in addition to fighting structure, brush and forest fires, also provides health and wellness checks and emergency services at auto accidents and any kind of calamity in the area.  Community support is Champion!

        It is about to get hot and the bugs are about to get bad.  Potato bugs, squash bugs and flea beetles plague the garden.  Ticks, chiggers and mosquitoes are just a few of the pests that make it an itchy place to live here in the beautiful Ozarks.  No one complains much since it is such an unproductive activity.  Haymaking can bring out the snakes and a report on-line that has not been verified had Faith Ann’s dad in mortal combat with an enormous copperhead right there in their house in town.  It was in the middle of the night, in the dark (copperheads are nocturnal, they say) and the thing was somewhere between the bureau and the bedpost with an idea of coiling around a human leg.  That would not do and the broken furniture in the aftermath of the fracas testifies to the seriousness of the situation.  The snake was but a dream—a dream so real that it put a foot through a bureau drawer and gave clear evidence that the man stands ready to protect his family asleep or awake.  The accuracy of this report will have to be verified with Connie.

        Linda’s Almanac from over at The Plant Place in Norwood informs that the 24th to the 26th will be favorable for planting peas, beans, tomatoes and all crops that bear above ground.  The 27th and 28th are extra good for fall lettuce, cabbage, collards and other leafy vegetables.  Find the Almanac on the bulletin board at the Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion, up at The Plant Place in Norwood, or on line at www.championnews.us.  “Oh! You can’t go home by the way of the mill.  There’s a bridge washed out at the bottom of the hill.  The big creek’s up and the little creek’s level.  Plow my corn with a double shovel.”  That is a good song inviting people to “stay all night and stay a little longer.  Dance all night.  Dance a little longer.  Pull off your coat.  Throw it in the corner.  Don’t see why you don’t stay a little longer.”  Eventually the visitors have to leave and that may be as welcome as their arrival.  Getting ready for company is an exciting time.  You might wonder what a stranger or someone seldom seen might observe when they walk into your house for the first time.  It would likely surprise you.  It is probable that they have just come to see you anyway so do not stress overly.  Register your surprise or relieve your stress among friends out on the wide veranda.  Sing your summertime songs there or just marvel at the phenomena of the world’s tallest bee hive visible all the way across town.  Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!