CHAMPION–March 29, 2010

        Champion is a place full of rich history, a comfortable and pleasant present, and a future of promise when today will be the distant past.  The past holds its place in Champion affections because it is familiar and full of the favorite memories rehearsed in their recounting.  The Champion present is full of opportunity and surprise as well as the reliable features of the past maintained with care and respect for their appropriate usefulness and convenience.  The future of Champion is eaten up day by day by the present and never seems to arrive.  It is always just a Bright Spot on the horizon.  Personal circumstance dictates where individuals spend most of their time–past, present, or future–it is Champion!

        Thursday will be April Fools’ Day.  It is a much celebrated day among Champion’s neighboring tribes, the Spotted Hogs, Denlowites and the Vanzantians.  The latter, particularly, gather at the Junction on that most special day for feasting and merrymaking.  This year the legions of musicians will be augmented by one Dillon Watts, banjoist.  He is making the trip from Tennessee with his brother and Mother for the very purpose of passing the holiday with his Grandmother and their extensive and expansive family.  His great Uncle Harley is already in the neighborhood, incidentally tending to his estate, and his Great Aunt Vivian spent Sunday afternoon in Champion explaining the process by which one controls a neighbor’s dog that is want to steal the newspaper from the step and chew it up before it has a chance to be read.  (The process results in a limping dog and delicate relations with the dog’s owners who, it was revealed, are very nice people who get the message.)  The festivities at Plumbers will doubtlessly include a performance of some sort by another of Dillon’s Great Uncles, The General (from the other side of the family.)  After the St. Patty’s day fiasco, he is still willing to be seen in public and Champions just smile and sigh and shake their heads.  What is one to do?

        Some can get on out in the garden and get ready to get something done.  The full moon on Monday changed the sign so that root crops can be planted through the end of the week.  Some old Champions will rush to get their potatoes in and others will be setting out onions.  Little lettuces and radishes are coming up in some places and other people are keeping their eyes pealed for the peas to pop up out of the ground.  Linda’s Almanac from over at the Plant Place in Norwood says that the first through the third of the month will also be good days to prune to encourage growth and to apply organic fertilizer.  Her Cole crops are ready and looking good.  Who knows why broccoli seems to taste better when it is fresh in from the garden…straight to the steamer?  Healthy eating is a Champion pastime.

        The Missouri Fire Service Alliance and other related organizations are sponsoring a 2010 Fire Fighters Day and Fire Fighters Memorial Service on April 14th at the State Capitol Rotunda.  It is a chance to meet with and discuss pertinent issues with the legislators and to pay respects to those firefighters who lost their lives during the last year.  More information can be found about this event at www.dfs.dps.mo.gov.  Firefighting is dangerous business and the Skyline Volunteer Fire Department firefighters all go through extensive training to protect themselves while they are protecting the community.  They are all first responders and have all the lifesaving skills required to meet with accidents, injuries and health emergencies.  Those new to the community may not know that the Skyline VFD has a ‘jaws of life’ apparatus to extract auto accident victims from their cars.  It is one of those invaluable tools that all hope get little use.

        As of Monday morning the Skyline Mascot Monkey for the month of March was up to $10.00 on the silent auction bid sheet down at Henson‘s Store on the North side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  Bidding closes at the end of the month.  The on-line bidder, E. Jasmin from El Paso, TX, has taken a spring break vacation and so will miss out on this one as she has been overbid.  Perhaps she will be more attentive next time.  A picture of the March Monkey will be up on the Neighborhood Events page of the www.championnews.us website.  Anyone new to the site can rummage around over in the Category section and find the Skyline VFD Chili Supper and look at some nice pictures taken that evening.  There might be some surprises.  The current events page also has a list of birthdays and anniversaries and other special events in the lives of Champions.  Send anything of that nature that you would like to have posted to Champion News.  Note that the year of the birthday does not need to be published…some want to forget that part of their birthday!

        Irving Berlin wrote, “Never saw you look quite so pretty before.  Never saw you dressed quite so lovely what’s more.  I could hardly wait to keep our date this lovely Easter morning and my heart beat fast as I came through the door, for in your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it You’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.  I’ll be all in clover and when they look you over I’ll be the proudest fellow in the Easter parade.” He goes on to say that he could write a sonnet about her bonnet.  It is a nice song.  Send your sonnet to Champion Items, Rt.  2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or step up on the porch at Henson’s Store and recite it to the gathering crowd.  J.D.  Shelton said that years ago Saturday morning would find the Square in Champion full of people who had gathered there just to visit.  “Sometimes there might be 75 people there,” he said.  Champion picture postcards continue to be a hot item and there is just enough room to write a nice sonnet on one if you write kind of small.  Whether you are composing, visiting, or just nosing around, if you are in Champion, you are Looking on the Bright Side!

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