A Champion couple, Freemans, who call themselves Still Hillbillies live down in McKinney, Texas, but they never forget the old home place. Suzie says, “I’ll never change. Never had a credit card, cable TV, cell phone, face-book or a computer and I’ve made it over 73 years.” She and Wes celebrated 55 years of marriage in November. They both have health problems and she said there is a great deal of Covid in her family and in the area where they live. Still, she is optimistic for a better year ahead, and once again, shared her sweet holiday art work in the mail. See an example in the Meeting Room at the Historic Emporium in Downtown Champion.

Royce and Jody Henson celebrated 62 (sixty-two!) years of marriage on December 13th. Chances are they met in Champion or in the general neighborhood sometime before 1958. Jody says, “We are fine and staying at home. Guess that’s why we’re fine!” She is a ‘people person’ wondering if we are missing people as much as she is. Plans are to meet up with them at the Champion School Reunion on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend in 2021. It will be a glad reunion day for everyone when we can gather again in big happy bunches.

Emily’s dear old Dad is a garlic lover. He likes it in everything and even likes it pickled. One of his kin folks raised that big variety called Elephant Garlic, and he fertilized it with elephant poo that he was able to get from the zoo. It was big—not like the tiny vegetables a Champion is reported to have harvested after using miniature donkey poo for fertilizer. One Old Champion prefers horse manure for her garden, but she is no longer able to double shovel. Alas!

Once again, we sing the praises of the Douglas County road crew. Those gentlemen keep our country lanes in good shape around the twists and turns over the hills and over the creeks. That fancy articulated brush hog has been up and down Cold Springs Road lately and doing a fine job of it. It looks ragged now, but spring will be wonderful for the work they are doing now. Just now, however, someone abandons a fairly neat little plastic bag of trash on that straight stretch of sandy road just south of Orville’s barn. Solid waste management has always been an issue in Douglas County. People do not seem to know what to do with their refuse or they lost it inadvertently or they just have not been taught good citizenship. It will be a Champion who picks it up.

It was a beautiful snowy Sunday with flakes falling fast, first fine and wet, then slowly and softly, then fast again and fluffy, all falling straight down and hardly any sticking. It was a good day for looking out all the windows and for watching the Kansas City Chiefs in another exciting victory. When asked, “Was there anything, other than the game, on television or on the internet today that made you feel better about anything?” the Old Champion replied, “No. Nothing much is going to change. Things will not get appreciably better; maybe they will just stop getting worse. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but it is a long, long tunnel.” In a year when our vocabulary has been augmented by words like kakistocracy, crumbletonians, and snollygoster, we are cautioned and enlightened by Woody Guthrie’s great “Mean Talking Blues.” He made the polka dots hate the stripes. Hopes are that the Mean Season is over and we can mend the beautiful fabric of our democracy with our good hearts meeting the good hearts of our neighbors. We all want the same thing. This week we remember the great Charlie Pride and “On the Wings of a Dove.” Champion! Looking on the Bright Side!


 
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