Champion News

CHAMPION—October 29, 2007

        From Champion to Champion Bud Hutchison’s trail ride was a delightful trip on Saturday the 27^th.  It took seventeen stock trailers to get all the horses to Champion together with two buggies and a wagon.  From there they wound through the back country to Drury for lunch and then made their way back to their beginnings.  There were no bee stings, no thrown riders, no problems of any sort, just a beautiful amble through the colorful countryside.

        Harley Krider is now old enough to be eligible for what was once informally called the “Old Age Pension.”  Younger people around Champion hold him in high esteem and look forward to the opportunity to congratulate him on his milestone birthday when he can manage the trip home to Champion again.

        Dakota Watts, visiting from Tennessee, has harvested his first deer.  He went out with his Uncle Leslie Krider on Saturday morning and brought down a beautiful eight point buck.  He and his brother, Dillon, and parents Linda and Marty were in Champion with Marty’s dad, Steve Watts, for a gospel meeting at the little church in Champion over the week end.  Family and friends gathered from places far and wide.  Champion is always a much improved place when Esther and Raymond Howard are around. They were down from Marshfield on Friday and there is talk of another squirrel hunt one of these days.  Madelyn Ward and her cousin Foster Wiseman cut some lively capers together Saturday.  They are growing fast and are too busy to bother with little Kalyssa just yet.  Kalyssa looks like her Champion Grandmother some say– just beautiful.  Grandparents must be the happiest people around with their benevolent and indulgent smiles.  It’s sweet to see.

        Champion’s pumpkin saw its first frost Monday morning.  The Little Green Bean House is wilting now after a long season of providing tasty green beans, lovely flowers and happy memories for numerous children.  The seasons change and this time of year Champions are reminded of the Brevity of Life.  That is to be the theme of the Halloween Masquerade Parade organized by the Champion Parade Committee.  “Brevity” is the key word and foreigners and gawkers from over at Spotted Hog and Ava will have to look fast to see the procession of Pumpkin Floats, The Headless Cobbler impersonators flying in from Smallett for the occasion, and all the Wild and Wooly Boogers of Booger County.  The Grand Marshall of the parade will henceforth be known as the “Great Booger” and will be chosen by the Committee as the Parade passes before the reviewing stand.  Free Pumpkin Ice Cream is to be furnished by Robert Upshaw who is trying to curry favor with the Committee hoping for an appointment to it.  That hardly seems likely since he is not ‘local’ but a resident of the Fashionable Champion Suburb known as “Vanzant.”  His close ties to the Champion community ( a sister and niece who prefer not to be identified) and the quality and quantity of his frozen confection might purchase a special dispensation.  CPC members are adamant, however, in stating that membership is not for sale, so in parlance familiar to the supplicant:  “it’s a crap shoot.”  The parade will have come and gone before Spotted Hoggers can get their mascot off the trailer and harnessed up for the Great Pumpkin Pull.  They will be sorry to have missed it.  Alas!

         Champion’s  reputation as a bustling berg has been proven out this week in a big way.  Its proximity to the center of the county must account for the mail.  Eulalia Jasmin writes again (with no return address) to say that she had seen the report in the Herald that the Sesquicentennial Celebration had ‘exceeded all expectations.’  She said, “Appreciation has been expressed to Mark Farbin for the Grand Ball Photos, but there were no Grand Ball Photos!”  She went on to inquire if this Mark Farbin was related to Jean Farbin of Jean’s Healthway in Ava.  She said that it had been her first time to pass through Ava and that she had found this store on the square to be ‘altogether charming’ and the people there ‘knowledgeable.’  She had a number of complimentary things to say but expressed an overriding disappointment at not seeing pictures of the dance.  Perhaps they will appear in future issues of the Herald and perhaps Ms. Jasmin will direct her editorial comments directly to the Herald in the future.  Still, her interest in Champion and her colorful remarks are certainly welcome.

         So far this year 836 US Service People have lost their lives in Iraq.  That brings the total to 3,839.  The estimated number of wounded for this year is 5,411 and the official total number of wounded since the beginning of the conflict is 28,171.  Of course, there are many more wounds not reported by the soldiers and many wounds to the hearts of those next of kin and other survivors waiting at home.  To all of those people Champions extend their Love and Gratitude for their service and for their sacrifices.  In an article in the SouthEast Missourian in Cape Girardeau, Bridget DiCosmo reported that when Iraq veteran Robert Wake returned home in Malden, Mo, he found himself homeless.  “I came home to absolutely nothing,” Wake testified at a hearing Tuesday (October 23, 2007) before the Missouri House Interim Committee on Veterans Services.  He returned to Malden after having spent a year in General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital receiving treatment for injuries sustained in the war.  He went on to say that “It is so important that we look at soldiers that are coming home and their families because families are so important to the healing process.”  The committee, appointed last month by House Speaker Rod Jetton, is holding the hearings to give Missourians the opportunity to voice their concerns whether the state’s veterans receive the support they need and deserve.  Champion’s soldier (SSG Moreno, Raul 4-319^th / TF SABER/ FOB NARAY / APO AE 09354) is serving in Afghanistan.  No community in the Country is exempt from concern for those who serve.

         A Champion reported having heard the Dalai Lama speak on Saturday up in Indiana on the subject of Cultivating Happiness.  “My main commitment is the concept of a happy life,” he said. “Much depends on having peace of mind.”  He seems to have the same kind of positive attitude and sense of humor that was the hallmark of Ed Henson.  It would be interesting to learn if he is also a prankster.  Imagine Louise getting her Christmas morning phone call, “Good morning!  Is your refrigerator running?  Well, You better catch it!”

         Tales of beautiful ambles, impending squirrel hunts, things to cultivate, and things benevolent or indulgent are welcome at Champion Items, Rt. 2, Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717.  Email Pumpkin Ice Cream Receipts, pictures of the Champion Halloween Masquerade Parade, (especially of the Great Booger), or pictures of the Sesquicentennial Grand Ball to Champion News.  Colorful remarks may be made at Henson’s Store in colorful Downtown Champion which is just a little to the right of the exact center of Douglas County (please no politics!) where the byword is Champion!—Looking on the Bright Side!