While farmers and merchants, truck drivers, mail carriers, health care professionals and others doing important and necessary work continued doing what needed to be done, some Old Champions were hold up warm and cozy during the week of extreme weather. They watched old movies and opened boxes of forgotten memorabilia, worked on unfinished projects, started new projects, wrote letters and did a lot of cooking and eating. Lucky are those snowbound with people they like. The days seem t pass slowly. When you live way out in the country, you can turn the music up as loud as you want. While inconvenient, the days were not unpleasant.
The rising temperatures are raising spirits. Sunday in the 60s found adventurers out on their side-by-sides, buggies and four-wheelers exploring beautiful country lanes, muddy already but not nearly as muddy as the will be when the thaw is complete. Dee mud stories of old will likely be told again around the old wood stove as rain is expected on Wednesday. Back in the late 1970s a county gravel truck was mired down on Cold Springs Road in the aftermath of a Valentines’ Day party just after a thaw from a deep snow and a little rain. The truck was said to have just wallowed over on its side.
               Saturday, March 1st, Sue’s Greenhouse will open for the spring season. It is a warming notion. She has been working since December getting everything ready. She has her seeds ready and has added some additional herb seeds to her stock. In a couple of weeks, she will have berry bushes and perhaps some fruit trees. A stroll through the greenhouse is aromatherapy and frequently the chance to visit with friends who are there for the same reason.
Edie, over at L and E Organic Farm has also started lots of seedlings and has enormous leaves of her Indian Green Malbar spinach already providing wonderful salads for herself and her handsome honey, Lee. Edie is an herbalist who makes natural remedies and a wonderful tonic called Super Power. Lee is a beekeeper producing Lee’s Bees’ Honey, in addition to being an excellent luthier. He has repaired and donated instruments to the Skyline School Guitar class taught by Cheyenne McIntosh. We celebrate garden goodies, honey, music and the promise of spring in just 27 days.
               Saturday, March 22, 2025, there will be a pie supper to raise funds to keep the Vanzant Community Building doors open and operating. Pulled pork and other food will be available before the auction begins. Doors open at 5 pm with the auction beginning at 6 pm. There has not been a fundraiser for the community building since 2011. Funds have run out. This has been the accommodating venue for many benefits–benefits for victims of house fires and heath issues, as well as birthday celebrations and celebrations of life. It is a polling place and a place for politicians to rally. The Thursday night Vanzant Bluegrass Jam every week and the Vanzant Picnic every summer are some of the glue that connects Ava, Mountain Grove, Norwood, Willow Springs, Dora, Prior, Champion, Gentryville and probably Spotted Hong and other sweet spots. Come together to help keep a part of the history of our community alive and thriving! It is a pie supper, so maybe Kaitlyn McConnell will be there. Her Ozark Pie Project is producing a cookbook soon. She may have some of Esther’s and Teresa’s recipes that brought substantial auction money for many good causes over the years.
                Sunday marked the anniversary of the day the flag was raised on Iwo Jima in 1945. The American victory there significantly weakened the Japanese early warning system and helped hasten the end of World War Two. The country was allied with Great Britian and the Soviet Union at that time. Times have changed and some of us old folks recall the warning of Nakita Khrushchev way back in 1956. Look it up and look up to enjoy these beautiful blue skies and the optimism of Champion–Looking on the Bright Side!

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