Champion News

CHAMPION—October 19, 2009

        In Champion the pumpkins finally got their frost on Sunday morning.  The mulberry trees let go of their big green leaves as soon as the sun hit them and they floated down into a deep carpet.  The woods have taken on the character of an old master’s landscape and Champions are again awed by the beauty of their own place in the sunshine.  Some are quite awed at the possibility of the broadband internet coming their way.  It cannot be too soon.

        A pleasant phone visit with Champion Esther Wrinkles was full of good news about the Thursday Night Music over at Plumber’s Junction.  The Backyard Bluegrass had a packed house and about raised the roof!  Johnny Unger’s sister took some photos, which Esther hopes she will email to the Champion mailbox.  D.J. put down his banjo and picked up his fiddle to play the Orange Blossom Special for Esther…she’s talking about making him another cake!

        Champion’s most avid eagle watcher shared a copy of the eagle picture that she received last week from her cousin in Texas.  It is a photo of a painting done on a slice of agate by prominent artist Marie Nash of Madisonville, Texas.  The eagle is a stately fellow.  His portrait came with a pleasant note from the Champion neighbor under the cover of a postage stamp bearing the likeness of Gary Cooper.  Now there was a handsome fellow.  The Solidarity Movement in Poland adopted his image as Will Kane in the movie, High Noon, in the struggle to gain free elections and to oust the Soviet backed communist government.  Leck Walenza was the hero there.  He was an electrician in the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk and eventually became the President of Poland.  Back in the U.S., Sergeant York would not authorize the movie of his life unless Gary Cooper played the part.  With roles like Lou Gehrig and John Doe, Cooper fit the mold for a Champion kind of guy, though his life was not without controversy.

        Controversial things show up in a book by Barbara Ehrenreich called Bright-Sided:  How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.  She has written sixteen previous books, including the bestsellers Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch.  She said that she interviewed a lot of motivational speakers whose message to their corporate clients in sales meetings is:  you can have whatever you want, so long as you focus your thoughts on it and as long as you really, really, really want it.  The writer says, “..that’s nuts.  That’s not how we make change in the world.  We make change by planning, by thinking and by coming together.”  Her alternative to positive thinking is not negative thinking or despair, “it’s checking out what’s really there and finding out how to change it.”  Bright Siders around these parts feel that they do have their eyes open and there are reasons to be optimistic.  Not too much wants changing in Champion, though Champions support the writer’s efforts in corporate America and other distant places.

        Timber!  Three Champion women took falls this week.  One stepped off her porch in her slick little shoes onto a slick rock in the rain and made a splat that frightened the poor UPS man coming up the drive.  She has a scab on her knee now and some stretched muscles that want the heating pad.  Another Champion up in Marshfield, on her way to baby-sit, took a misstep and bloodied her nose on her granddaughter’s front steps.  She is feeling better, but it was not the fun kind of day she had planned.  Champion’s Norwood friend tripped and took a dive into a wall that blacked both her eyes.  When her Champion friend saw her on Wednesday, the colors had changed to that interesting combination of purple, yellow and green.  By the time for the regular bridge game on Saturday she was back to her normal lovely self.  Some say these kinds of things come in threes, so enough is enough.

        On Saturday the regular Fortnight Bridge group met with Charlene Dupre sitting in for the Vera Cruze player.  The Champion player left home with $2.30 and returned the winner with $3.10.  Bridge is good brain exercise particularly with a mix of good friends and pineapple upside down cake.  Players from Champion-East and Champion joined sisters at the Plant Place and Gift Corner up in Norwood for a rousing game last Wednesday.  There were quite a number of unfulfilled contracts and Champion-East, who rarely plays, was victorious.  They enjoyed pizza and lots of talk about gardening and the expected frost.  There are still a few good planting days left in the Hunter’s Moon.  The 25^th – 27^th, 30^th , 31^st are all good days for planting things like leafy greens.  Some say that this is the best time to plant spinach–that it will winter over and be good for early spring.  Before the ground freezes is a good time to set out all kinds of perennials and to plant daffodils.  Linda’s got a good deal on some evergreens these days and the mums are just lovely.  An old Clever Creek Champion says “Thanks!” to Harley for the hay.  Now he has his potato patch ready for next year.  Champion!

        First Lt. Tyler E. Parten, a native of Arkansas, died Thursday in Konar province in a firefight where insurgents used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles.  He is one of the 267 Fort Carson soldiers to die in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Richard Love is the postmaster in the little town of Fountain near the fort.  He says that he sees the toll on the faces of the wives that the soldiers leave behind.  The place stays braced for tragedy and expressions of Love and Gratitude are freely spoken.

        Rain caused the tour of the grand avenue to be postponed until Barbara is back in the neighborhood.  Champions always hope that is soon.  She has been off on a basket-weaving holiday, but Champions know that she is thinking about just how many signs and just where to place them on the now famous Lonnie Krider Memorial Drive.  The air is crisp and bright with good memories and melodies fill Champion hearts.  There is sweetness in a sad song that makes a person feel better somehow.  “Poor little Sadie is down from the mountain, the orphanage took her away.  Her Mama ran off with a revival preacher.  Her Daddy forgot how to pray.  They scrubbed on her knees and her elbows.  They cut off her long tangled hair.  They turned loose of her old dappled pony and loaded her into the car.”  Well, it goes on and on.  She grew up and turned out ok, but it was not easy.  Sadie sounds like a Champion kind of gal, one that might just step up on the porch at Henson’s Store to let loose with a song.  The Champion Picture Post Card business is in full swing whipping up nostalgia and positive thinking.  Get a look at the scenic gems at www.championnews.us or in person at the Emporium in Downtown Champion.  Send news of Lem and Ned to Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or to Champion News.

Do not worry about undermining America, Champion!  Look on the Bright Side!