Champion News

CHAMPION—January 25, 2016

January Robins

        On Saturday night the big full yellow moon made its way through the clear sky.  It was cold.  It was a great night for a birthday party for a couple of talented young men who do not know each other–Missouri Kyle and Oklahoma Oliver.  The next day red, red robins came bob, bob bobbing along in the front yard.  It was January 24th!  Are they harbingers of Spring, or are they just taunting us?  Whatever the weather, the days are passing one after another and Champions are uniformly grateful for the dawning of each new day.  The big old yellow moon made its path through the clear night sky on Saturday and shown in on sleepers warm and cozy.  Ah!

        Skyline preschool student, Cody Coonts, may be related to middle school teacher, Mrs. Coonts.  In any event they share a birthday on January 25th.  Is it possible that they are both related to Cowboy Jack?  Brooke Johnson is in the 4th grade at Skyline.  Her birthday is on January 26th.  Kaye Heffern Alexander was a student at Skyline back when she was Kaye Heffern.  Her birthday is on the 27th and she can expect a card in the mail.  Erika Strong is a third grade student.  Her birthday is on January 30th.  If James Brixey was 40 years old on January 30, 2012, how old is he now?

        Lannie Hinote has had some adventures since she returned to Alaska after the holidays.  She has been coaching basketball again and very much enjoying it.  She also posted this:  “You know it is time to be grateful your feet are back on the ground when the pilot of the little tin can you have been flying in says it is okay to be scared because he is too….however a free roller coaster ride…. E.B.,  I know how you felt, yesterday but I refuse to say thanks for the experience.”  Lannie is a Champion surrogate adventurer.  Thanks!

        The Wednesday dusting of snow was scant enough that gravel showed through on the county roads and travel was safe.  A number of regular attendees made the effort and were rewarded with a mostly pleasant gathering down on the wide, white, wooly banks of Aulde Fox Creek.  A celebratory chocolate cake from the day before was polished off and some interesting conversations ensued.  Ethel is trying to find the name of a western movie she once saw where the two main characters were sworn enemies, but circumstances forced them to cooperate in order to survive.  They determined that when they reached the river they would resume their hostility.  She did not say how the movie ended.

        The subject of General Custer came up in connection with Ethel’s inquiry about the movie and in connection with that a famous local farrier correctly identified Custer’s marching song as Garry Owen.  He said that the 7th Calvary was serving in Viet Nam when he was there in 1966 and 1967.  They thought their unit was jinxed on account of Custer.  He thought they were jinxed because they thought that way.  They showed him the empty pen that had held the 7th Calvary’s mascot mule.  He was told that the animal had wandered out in an open place and had got it from all sides.  Asking the Google folks later, “What happened to the mascot mule of the 7th Cavalry?” a number references confirm that she did not survive.  Her name was Maggie.  She… “—got blown away by a nervous guy on perimeter guard.”  There are a number of books that tell the story.  The mule was named after Lieutenant Colonel Stockton’s wife.  (There may be an interesting story there.”)  There was some idea that the mule had been named after General Custer’s wife, but her name was Elizabeth.  Elizabeth ‘Libby’ Bacon Custer was only 35 when she became a widow.  In that day women were not supposed to work, but in 1877 she found a part-time job in New York as a secretary at the Society of Decorative Art, an organization that trained impoverished gentlewomen in practical arts (such as needlework) so they could earn a living.  In 1881 Libby traveled to Washington to ask for increases in military widows’ pensions.  Because women were not supposed to talk about money, this was a difficult effort for her, but she was effective.  In 1882 her pension increased from $30.00 to $50.00 and by 1890 the government was paying widows $100.00 per month in benefits.  She lived until 1933.

        Meanwhile, the song Gary Owen (Garryowen) has been around since the 1700’s.  Beethoven got hold of it and composed two arrangements of it in 1809—1810.  These interesting Wednesday conversations always lead from one thing to another and then to exciting research that continues to prove that the past has informed and shaped the present.  It is fascinating.  It was a lovely day Wednesday, cold and snowy, and hardly spoiled at all by an aging self-confessed prevaricator again shaming all honest fishermen with a preposterous tale invented on the spot for no other purpose than self-aggrandizement, and fishing for a fight, casting stink bait across political and ethical lines.  “Let no man pull you low enough to hate him,” said a wise person, Dr. King Jr.  “When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser,” said Socrates, though in this case it was more egocentric pontification than debate.  Garry Owen is more than a song.  And it is not a person, as many people might think.  It’s a place.  Translated from the Gaelic, it means “Owen’s Garden.”  Look for a more about this mid-February for the St. Patrick’s day episode of TCN.

        As per last week:  Road conditions are passable; gardens are burgeoning; passive aggressive behavior is still an enigma.  This week January 25th is celebrated for Robert Burns.  He was a republican fan of the French revolution and a great lover of the American Revolution.  It is fitting that his birthday should be celebrated here in this land of freedom and democracy…”for he sprung from the people, remained to the end one of the people, and his heart was ever with the democratic institutions of the United States.”  There will be special dinners with music and poetry for him this Monday night.  (My love is like a red, red rose that sweetly blooms in June.  My love is like a melody that’s sweetly played in tune.)  Burns was a great fan of George Washington and of all things democratic.  In Mountain Grove a person can register to vote at the Division of Family Services in the Cedar Center, at City Hall and at the drivers’ license bureau across from the Post Office.  Serious efforts to impede voting are going on in a number of states, Missouri included, under the guise of preventing voter fraud, which turns out to be minuscule.  It seems that a low voter turn-out works to the favor of some.  Then there are those who say it does not matter who you vote for, it only matters who counts the votes.  Who owns those voting machines anyway?  Champions everywhere are urged to become informed and participate or to quit your bellyaching.  An important election will occur on March 15th.

        Foster Wiseman was featured on the internet Sunday playing his mandolin.  He is just getting started and is showing some real promise.  He comes from a musical family.  Everyone can remember starting something new.  Children are expected to learn new things all the time.  It is education.  It is growing up.  Old folks often fall into the ‘old dogs-new tricks’ category.  They lament the loss of the effortlessness of their youth and are cowed by fear of failure or of ridicule.  Others embrace their ridiculousness with humor.  Share your curiosity, your questions and answers, your songs and slogans and fearlessness at champion@championnews.us or bring them with you down to one of the world’s truly beautiful places…Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!