Champion News

CHAMPION–August 1, 2011

        Champions “never weary in well doing.”  Wilburn Hutchison has used this quote for years and still finds it applicable.  Louise said that it had even been the theme for a sermon on a recent Sunday.  Champions are all glad to know the two of them are perking along nicely in spite of heath issues and the intense heat.  Louise said that her brother over in Dubuque, IA had fifteen inches of rain recently.  The river came up but has yet to get into his garden.  He has seventy tomato plants and a fifty-foot row of beans.  Lots of blooms, he said, but no beans yet.  That has been the story in these parts as well for some, but some have been having record bean harvests.  Linda’s Almanac from over at the Plant Place in Norwood says that from the third all the way to through the 7^th will be good days for planting above the ground crops, lettuce and greens.  Look at the Almanac on the refrigerator inside Henson’s Store currently located in the Temporary Annex on the West Side of the Square in Downtown Champion.  Bill Long uses that Almanac and was in Champion Sunday sharing a beautiful Wallace tomato with Ms. Eva Powell.  He and Crena do not live in Champion, but they are Champion gardeners.  More good Sunday reports had Tim and Beth Watts in town from Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  They are uncle and aunt to those Champion grandsons Dillon and Dakota who are frequent visitors down on the Fox Creek Farm.  Summer is slipping away.  They will soon be back in school, but for the moment they are spreading their fun and excitement around Champion, and Champions are glad of it.

        C Highway is a particularly dangerous road.  It is beautiful, hilly, winding and narrow.  It was the scene of a sad accident on Sunday as 17-year-old Levi Keller of Drury lost his life when his truck left the roadway and crashed into the trees on the east side of the road.  Champions extend their sympathies to this young man’s heartbroken family.

        Pete Proctor writes to report that 15 to 20 Korean Vets were on hand for the planting of a tree on the Mountain Grove Square to commemorate Korean Armistice day July 27^th.  VFW Post 3770 performed a color ceremony for the event which was attended by the American Legion, Patriot Riders, other Veterans as well as the Mountain Grove city council, the police department, VFW Ladies Auxiliary, junior girls and boy scouts.  Those serving and those who have served are due Love and Gratitude.

        The Fourth Thursday Bridge Club (The Old Biddies) met in Mansfield on the 28^th.  They are an eclectic bunch of ladies with wildly divergent views on many things, but they all like to play bridge.  It is such a wonderful game that challenges each player for strategic planning and memory.  One of its excellent aspects is that, while it is fiercely competitive, it, more than any other game, promotes good sportsmanship.  It is rare to witness goading, gloating or any kind of mean-spirited behavior.  Some of the old instruction books actually say that it is inappropriate to ever do anything at the bridge table that would in any way cause any other player not to enjoy the game.  Knowing that there are three others waiting, bridge players are generally most punctual as a matter of consideration.  How completely civilized!  It is a serious game, but this permutation called ‘party bridge’ lends itself more to socializing than other forms of the game.  Laughter trickles through the room and between hands as friends catch up with each other and with the news of mutual friends missing from the tables.  Some are ill, some are entertaining out of town guests, and some are helping elderly neighbors, but they will be back!  Wherever there are sixteen bridge players, four tables and eight decks of cards, there is Game!

        A number of those bridge players responded to the photograph of Esther Wrinkles with the Skyline Picnic Quilt and purchased tickets for the drawing.  It will be given away on Saturday night the 13^th of August at the Skyline VFD Picnic.  Dorlene House, Betty Swain, Colleen Stofer, Theda Rush, Bona Achord, Sylvia Neff, and Linda Hetherington all have their names in that hat and some several times.  It is a lovely quilt and an excellent opportunity to support the rural fire department that plays such an important role in the Champion-Skyline community and surrounding areas.  Firefighters and auxiliary members are getting ready for the picnic.  The grooming of the grounds began August first.  A meeting to get things organized is always an interesting gathering and there is always much to do.  There will be some vigorous, enthusiastic, energetic young people ready to do what needs to be done and there will be an experienced ramrod there to tell them.  “You know, if you act like you are having a good time, before you know it you will forget you are acting and you will really be having a good time.”  This is the same line he has used before, and it has proven out.  It seems that it works.  It is the very Champion attitude that makes the Skyline Picnic such a fine event year after year—that and the efforts of many.

        That picture of the bear over by Esther’s house was really an eye opener!  It reminds one of that song about the preacher up in the tree.  He had gone out walking early one Sunday morning and happened to have his gun with him, but when he met up with the grizzly bear he wound up in a tree praying for all he was worth.  “Lord,” he said, “You delivered Daniel from the lion’s den, and Jonah from the belly of the whale, the Hebrew children from the fiery furnace, so the Good Book does declare, so, Lord!  If you can’t help me, please don’t help that bear!” 

        “The conceited and complacent simpering leer on the porcine visage of the perceived victor is one that no amount of slapping will erase.  No conflagration of words at any volume can penetrate the bone of one so convicted in his own rectitude, so contemptuous of his fellows and betters or so jaded by self-aggrandizement.  Pity the duped who thought they were doing the right thing on election day, and pity poor unfortunates among his constituency, for their woes will only be compounded.  Five terms from the sour mash state, sees himself and his family enriched while the Nation languishes in obstructionism.”  This diatribe shows up in the Champion News mailbox from an anonymous source in response to recent political events.  One wonders what this writer might think of the oil mega billionaire Koch brothers funding of the Tea Party—the grassroots citizens’ movement, or of Grover Norquist self appointed King of Greed?  Send bear songs, picnic songs, and observations of any kind to that address or to Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  Look in on www.championnews.us for a splendid view of all the dappled glory that is Champion!  Looking on the Bright Side!