Champion News

Pete Proctor did not care that it rained all day during his Honor Flight–a great experience.

As good news drifts up from the South that family and friends have survived the terrible storm, it is hard to imagine how difficult things must be there for millions of people.  Often it is said that it is a shame that it takes a disaster of some kind to bring people together.  It is a shame.  Stories of heroism and sacrifice are being told.  There are incidents too of gouging, careless indifference and bad behavior, but for the most part the news is presented in a way to give hope.  Hope is certainly a precious commodity.  Assistance is pouring into the gulf coast from all over the Nation though they say recovery will be a long, slow process.  Champions are hopeful for the safety and health of our family, friends and neighbors there.

The Champion School Reunion will have happened before this gets to ink.  Preliminarily it can be said that the weather will be fine.  Laine Sutherland says it will be a great change from the usual suffocating heat and humidity.  Laine has just had a birthday.  Word comes up from Bella Vista, Arkansas that Harold and Eva Henson Phillips will not be attending this year due to health issues from which Eva is making a good recovery.  Harold reports that they had contact with Hovie and Dawn Henson down in Houston and they were dry and still had electricity.  Friends will be looking for Royce and Jody Henson and hope they can make it this time.

Ladies from the VFW Post #3770 District 18 were there to greet Pete Proctor with a banner saying, “Welcome Home” when he returned from his trip to Washington DC on the Honor Flight.  He posted a number of pictures of himself at the various memorials in the Capital and said that it was a moving experience that he hopes all Veterans will get a chance to have.  He is active in the VFW and the American Legion and is part of the Honor Guard officiating at Veteran’s funerals in the area.  He will be attending a service on Saturday that may keep him from being at the Champion School reunion.  His friends will miss him, but they understand and are proud of him and of his service.

More than three hundred ten thousand (310,000) voters in Missouri have signed the petition that will bring the Right to Work Act to a referendum.  It was to have taken effect on August 28th, but now will be on hold until it is on the ballot in the November, 2018 election.  It is a contentious issue that can be seen favorably by both sides.  We will have time to educate ourselves on the matter before the vote.  It is timely as Labor Day is upon us.  An eight hour work day, a forty hour week, overtime and such as that are all attributable to organized labor.  Now we are looking toward equal pay legislation and a roll back on the roll back of the minimum wage.  There are volumes written and college courses on Labor Relations.  Everyone has his own ideas.  There is a movement afoot to change our elections to have open primaries.  How much greater would our choices be?  There are efforts afoot in various places to suppress voting.  For goodness sake, forty percent of eligible voters chose not to do so in the last big election.  That is about 90,000,000 people—ninety million people.  It would seem like we should be making it easier for eligible voters to vote.  Everyone has his own ideas.  So it was with the wandering cousin—just full of it/them.  Back in Houston now and after 56 inches of rain, he is high and dry.  He communicated that he ought to have stayed around a while.  He could have seen the eclipse and missed the hurricane.  “Thanks, I should have stayed in MO another week or two, but you’d be looking for a place to hide the body by now!”  The General indicated that there is a spot at the Denlow Cemetery on the south side of the road that is designated for Texans.

Lannie Hinote is back in Alaska.  She said that since she was too far north to see the eclipse she is making reservations for April 8, 2024 to sit outside her RV and watch the next one.  A charming Vanzatian enjoyed the eclipse in the Pacific Northwest and took a forty mile hike around Mount Hood.  She had a wonderful time and will be home soon to share her adventures.  Mail comes from another adventurer, Eulalia Jasmin, now in Oaxaca, Mexico.  “Hola estmados Americanos” (Hello esteemed Americans)  “Todos ustedes son gran Campeones ayudando sus paisanos aya en Houston.”  (You are all great Champions helping your countrymen there in Houston.)  “Ojala que se mejore aya pronto.”  (I hope it gets better there soon.)  “De su amiga y besina en Mexico, E. Jasmin”  (From your friend and neighbor in Mexico, E. Jasmin)  “Y que paso con este gran pendejo chicheron?”  Eulalia has not written is several years so it is nice that she is acknowledging our crisis the way good neighbors do.  Una Campeona—a Champion.  She went on in a style more reminiscent of her earlier letters to say that that a photograph of any person taken with an open Bible and pious countenance does prove his Godly values.  Meanwhile, over in College Station, Texas, Bill Thomas Guitars writes to working Texas musicians and says, “If your guitar or bass, electric or acoustic was damaged by the hurricane, let me know.  I’ll do what I can to get it back in working order.  If I have the parts on hand, it’ll be completely free.  If I have to order parts, you’ll get them at my cost.  All labor will be free.  Stay safe.”  It is great to get mail.  Write to The Champion News, Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or champion@championnews.us.  Look for ten years’ worth of this kind of stuff at www.championnews.us.

Betty Thomas, Larry Wrinkles, and Wilma Hutchison all have birthdays on September 1st.  Phoebe Ward celebrates on the third and Vernon Upshaw and his nephew Dailey both celebrate on the fourth.  They sang “Happy Birthday” to Dailey at the Vanzant Jam on Thursday.  His second cousin Kalyssa had her birthday on Thursday.  She was on the wide veranda at the Historic Emporium on Wednesday with her brother, her great uncle, and a couple of cousins and friends.  She has a nice clear voice and sang “Amazing Grace” while Foster played his mandolin.  Thursday’s jam has split in two with the outside bunch in the new pavilion there at the Vanzant Community Center.  The inside circle numbered about eight and almost every song was played in the key of G because that is the favorite key of a favorite fiddler.  He’s “got a million friends, don’t feel any older.  Got nothing to lose, not even the blues, just bumming around.”  Come down to the broad banks of Auld Fox Creek during this glorious weather and sit a spell out on the wide veranda.  “Whenever worries start to bothering me, I grab my coat, my old slouch hat and hit the trail again you see” to Champion—Looking on the Bright Side!