Glorious early summer days in Champion have haymakers busy and all the exciting summertime events are beginning to happen. It seems that every time of the year has some excitement built into it in Champion. It is just that kind of place, poised on the balance of past and future…
Champions crossed Clever Creek Sunday morning in a fit of trepidation as the south west side of the slab was quite washed out and exposed and the north side an extended bog of mud. Four wheel drive proved to be a valuable feature of local jalopies. Later in the day…
Champions are conscious that just a few hours’ drive west the tornado damage in Oklahoma has wrecked homes and lives. Many have friends and family out there and hopes are that recovery is swift and strong. It is hard to find the bright side of a tragedy such as this,…
“Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer…” Champions now forget the discontent of winter, which was not much except for its length and move straight on to glorious summer. Last Sunday morning found frost in low spots and Tuesday temperatures reached 90˚. There will yet be some…
Champion phone lines and internet services were fairly clogged with well-wishing sons and daughters hoping to get through to speak with their dear old Mothers on Sunday. Monday finds the old darlings smiling and contented to have been remembered. Some had the good fortune to see their offspring face to…
In Champion, as in the rest of the country, Mother’s Day is an opportunity for children to express their love and appreciation to their special Mothers. They make cards and draw pictures, and glue macaroni on to various things that then get painted. Mothers hold on to these precious mementoes…
The bright beautiful days in Champion speak for themselves. They are the halcyon days that are the ideal ones that people will remember. Halcyon means untroubled and peaceful. The definition provided here is for the benefit of a great Champion friend who called last week looking for a definition to…
Spring! It is the very definition of tumultuousness. Things are roiling in the earth and in the sky. Soil is heaving and zygotes are cleaving in men and beasts. It is a fecund time of year. Some calendars designate April 22nd as Earth Day. It is certainly worth celebrating in…
The weather may be unsettled this time of the year but Champions do not mind. They are busy getting things done so that when the weather is perfect they will have nothing to do but enjoy it. This productivity may not be so much the result of good planning as…
The second week in April seems to have a theme running through it over the years. Last year this article began: “April 9, 2012–In Champion the gardener waits for the harvest and has patience for it and like James said, he is patient while waiting for the early and later…
Easter seemed early this year, but some reading reveals that Easter Sunday can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25, since it is set to correlate with Jewish Passover and that holiday is based on solar and lunar cycles. It was certainly a glorious day and the Champion Easter…
Fierce winds blew the clouds apart in the middle of the night long enough for the soon to be full moon to shine golden down into the face of the sleeping Champion. Being awakened in such a pleasant way made it easy to slip back into the comforting dreams of…
Sunday’s rain was just what Champions needed. One of the TV weather people said the neighborhood is in better shape this year going into the growing season than it was last year. Better is good. Champions are glad and optimistic by nature so, “Let it rain, let it pour. Let…
The first day of the week was a good one to have started off with rain. Champions do not complain. The skies were full of lightning through Saturday night and wind whipped everything that would bend or blow away. The moisture was well received. In the ‘old days’ the creeks…
It may well be that the buzzards have regretted coming back so early. No sooner had they shown up than the weather decided to be winter after all. Now warm days are wafting over Champions again and the snow and ice of the previous week are all but forgotten. The…
Champion is just the kind of place that makes a resident pleased to stay home. With the help of the telephone, one could be comfortable enough not to ever have to venture out. Then an old friend calls. What could be sweeter than that? Ruby Proctor called last Monday just…
In Champion, Monday was kind of cold and blustery. The temperature was not so low, but the wind made it feel wintry as it flapped the Grand old Flag vigorously on the porch post at the Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square. …
Champions start off Monday with bright sunshine and a stiff breeze that blows in the promise of a nice week ahead. Some Champions have friends and kin in New England who are enduring deep snow and looking at the possibility of an ice storm on top of it. Things like…
In Champion the groundhog jumped back in his hole on Saturday and commenced to shove the daffodils up out of the ground. There is a rumor that there are actual blooms over in West Champion, but for those along county roads North of the Metropolis the bulbs had sprouted up…
As the fog rolls down and through the valleys, Champions are once again amazed at the beauty of the place they are fortunate to call home. Colors change, new contours emerge and the sycamores stand out white against the darker hills. There is no need to go roaming. “The trouble…
Champions embrace change. It is the nature of the place which is at once very much separate from the rest of the world and very much a part of it. This change is a hard one to take however, as one of its most notable residents has left her old…
A letter from Texas to Champion@getgoin.net asks, “What’s going on with Esther Wrinkles? We haven’t read anything about her for a couple of weeks. We have never been to Champion, but we feel like we know this lady. Please send her our best wishes.” Champions join their distant friends in…
For any who have not had the opportunity to visit Champion since Christmas, you will see that there have been some changes there. Now in the window of Henson’s Downtown G & G is a neon sign that spells out the word “open” one letter at a time. It is…
The picture of the ninth graders on the steps at the Denlow School has sparked interest across the country. Geneva Heinemann up in Wasco, Oregon was the eighth of twelve children of Lola Upshaw Proctor who was the girl in the center on the top row of that picture. Geneva…
Sometimes a person’s birthday can get lost in Christmas. Some with late December birthdays celebrate their special day at another time of the year. The lucky ones celebrate their special day every time they wake up. Some special December birthdays include Skyline School students, Logan Fisher–December 18th, Destiny Surface—December 20th,…
As in other places, it turns out that some Champions are better house-keepers than others and that extends all the way to their computer hard drive. A cyber folder somewhere holds the ‘original’ picture sent by Laine Sutherland of the students at Denlow, but it became lost among the cyber…
Thursday evening was an interesting one in Champion. Unexplained lights hovering over West Champion blinked intermittently, disappeared and then reappeared. It was impossible to determine the exact elevation of the lights and they were accompanied by some lightning and an eerie stillness. The phenomenon was first seen by Charlie’s Dad…
A famous actress and intellect says that her father taught her that life’s important events occur in three stages…the anticipation, the participation and the recollection. The participation part took up so much of the Thanksgiving holiday, that only now are some Champions getting around to the recollection and reporting phases…
Good news travels fast in Champion. Some of the good news is that Champions are coming home to roost for Thanksgiving and there will once again be a great grateful crowd over at Vivian Floyd’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. It is a long standing tradition that the family gathers there…
Friday afternoon an old Champion finally decided to get her canna lily bulbs dug up for the season and set about to do that. Many of the garden edibles had made a fairly poor showing, but the cannas were planted late and close to the sprinkler and performed beautifully. The…
Good neighbors in Britain are most interested in the American political system and are as confused about the Electoral college as are many voters back home. Every four years, sometime around the time of the inauguration, the controversy over the process gets laid aside once again to consider other critical…
It would seem that many of the people in the Ozarks are related to people in Scotland. They immigrated to America in the 1700′s and settled in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains which eventually became the states of Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina where they carried on their time honored craft…
Traveling Champions are pleased to see how excitingly different the world is elsewhere and are delighted to see how very similar it is to home. An evening in an establishment called The Reverie over on Newington Street in Edinburgh was very reminiscent of any one of a number of places…
News has traveled all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to the effect that Saturday night brought another good inch of rain to Champion and that the weather is wonderful. Sunday was the birthday of Peanut’s dad and his Tennessee sister and her tall sons were in for a week’s…
Champions are pleased for their neighbors, those Pioneers, that they endured the inclement weather as pioneers have surely done always. Betty Thomas said that it was a little slow Saturday due to the disagreeable weather, but that quite a few people came out anyway. Sunday morning the sun was right…
Champions are suddenly much taken by the poet, Robert Burns. He was also a gifted musician and he dedicated himself to rescuing from oblivion and neglect hundreds of songs without words or with fragmentary or unsuitable words, “Auld Lang Syne” among them. He knew that song without words often dies.…
Champions are delighted that Esther Wrinkles has made her way out of the Autumn Oaks Short Term Rehabilitation care facility. She spent a couple of months there getting over a broken hip and will be enjoying the hospitality of her son and daughter-in-law for a while until she can get…
Esther Wrinkles has always enjoyed watching the wagon train go by, and her many friends will stop in to visit with her at the Autumn Oaks Care Center to report on it to her. Linda Cark and her folks, Joanne and Wayne Anderson, along with her Aunt Fern Bishop were…
Champions are set for another busy fall season and some are tiring of the constant comments about the swift passage of time. You’ll miss it by talking about it so much. That sentiment also speaks to people who are so busy taking pictures with their fancy cameras that they do…
Some of the rain that has been so needed in Champion came in the best possible fashion with no big electrical disturbances and in such a gentle way that not a drop ran off anywhere, but soaked right in. Over the course of a couple of days, the little drops…
The mist hanging in the valleys on Monday morning speaks of the rain that fell enough to wash the dust off the cars, but not enough to wake a person up to say, “Oh! It’s raining!” The forecast for the end of the week shows Champion to be cool and…
The good news in Champion is plentiful. The weather is being pleasing and little dribs and drabs of rain keep Champion hearts optimistic for eventual drought relief. An agronomist was heard to say that gardeners can expect a bumper crop of weeds next year on account of so much barren…
Champions begin the week with grateful hearts that the severity of the summer heat has for a while abated. They are optimistic that the moderation will endure and that rain will eventually fall. Every dry spell in history has ended in a shower. When the creeks are up too deep…
Some Champions are feeling that they have had a reprieve, as if they have been pardoned or have found amnesty or sanctuary from the heat and the oppressive prospect of no-end-in-sight to the brutality of summer, in spite of the full knowledge that ‘eventually’ it will be some other season. …
One Champion cast off her logical fear of lightening and stood grateful in the rain for a moment on her way to turn the sprinkler on in the garden. The dust did not get settled out on the road, but for a moment the gentle drizzle seemed to wash away…
Some Champions are busy this time of the year plucking, shelling, peeling and slicing–doing hot work in the kitchen. Perhaps folks were just tougher in the old days or perhaps it was not so hot back then before air conditioning. That air conditioners might somehow have contributed to the overall…
The ‘Dog Days of Summer’ have arrived in Champion. They are said to have started on the third of July and will end on August 11th. They are the nice toasty days that will be well remembered in mid-December. One old saying found in the book Ozark Magic and Folklore,…
Champion was much in the spotlight this last Friday as people poured out from surrounding towns and communities to attend the first all-city yard sale on the Square in Historic Downtown. For many, it was a first opportunity to get a good look at the place which has been likened…
A Champion off in distant places occasionally meets up with a music promoter who is given to drink. While never totally inebriated, he seems to be half way there continually. He has grandiose schemes for the advancement of his musician friends and is want to sprinkle his prose with the…
Tom Toles is a prominent national cartoonist and commentator who said that May is the very best month, except for June which is better. Champions are in agreement and are very much enjoying a busy time of the year and these particularly good days. Young Champion future farmers had a…
“And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days.” So said James Russell Lowell (1819-1891). The poem from which these lines are taken is full of keen observations about the value of natural beauty. “Every clod feels a stir,” says he, and so…
A chance trip around the county was an opportunity to marvel at the beauty of a place like this. The roadsides are strewn with Echinacea, butterfly weed, Queen Anne’s lace and an occasional purple musk thistle. In places where the hay has been cut and rolled, the manicured fields show…
Most Champions know that the “Ag News” program comes on TV very early in the morning—very early. Several were up early enough to hear it Saturday when it was reported that Missouri is flooded! Cries rose up out of darkened Champion farm houses in the pre-dawn hours: “Where?” “We’re not…
“Thanks for what little you did do.” That jest from the parent of a Champion many years ago was meant to say, “I am grateful for your effort, but do not think you are through.” When Sunday’s lightning and thunder produced almost enough rain to settle Champion’s dust some were…
Way off in the future there will be Champions who recall these pleasant days out in the wonderful glider and comfortable chairs on the front porch of the Historic Emporium. Now that winter’s chill is a distant memory, much of the socializing has moved from around the stove to the…
Moonstruck Champions used many square yards of digital camera space taking pictures of the Super Moon. Some think of it as phantom film. Certainly the visage resembled an apparition. Many just enjoyed the spectacle transfixed with no need to preserve it for the future. It is quite a Champion thing…
The remarkable beauty of the Champion countryside this time of year fairly takes the breath away. Turn suddenly around any corner to be dazzled by a scene that could well be painted in oil and mounted in a gilded frame on an expansive wall in a great hall to be…
Champions do not fret about the unsettled weather. Having no recourse, they just take what comes their way and make the very best of it. As the hummingbirds straggle in and the bees occupy the big walnut tree in force, Champions acknowledge the changing of the seasons yet again and…
Again Champion is awash in gratitude for the much needed rain and more for the absence of the dangerous weather that has caused such destruction to communities to the North, South, East and West. Champions agree that good fortune is a frequent circumstance in their charming berg and can muster…
In Champion the gardener waits for the harvest and has patience for it and like James said, he is patient while waiting for the early and later rain. Some particular Champion husbandmen would like that later rain to come on early. It seems dry, so some are watering and mulching…
The flush of spring’s arrival has eyes open in Champion. The slow arrival of spring in the past seemed to have made it last longer. No amount of pontificating on the subject can slow it down, so Champions just stay alert to the current beauty. During the big rains recently…
Spring fits Champion like a glove. There is nothing about it ‘not to love.’ Dogwoods and lilacs are opening even in the low spots and busy gardeners are planting with the hope that there will not be a nineteen degree night sometime in April. Find Linda’s Almanac to find out…
The rapid arrival of Spring is a subject getting a lot of attention in Champion. Everything has seemed to bloom at once and lavishly. There are already reports of mushroom finds and big rains on the way give rise to hope that mushroom hunters who have had little luck in…
A favorite Champion song is “May the good Lord bless and keep you, whether near or far away. May you find that long awaited golden day today.” When that golden day comes along Champions know it and are not want to waste a second of it. The past’s nostalgic hold…
Champions are Grateful for having been spared the worst of the bad weather and extend their sympathies and best wishes for a speedy recovery to those hard hit to the south and west, to the north and to the east. A quote recently heard was, “Be kind to every one…
Champions find themselves in the delightful circumstance of seeing one of the world’s lovely places become even more lovely. Not that there was anything unpleasant about the Temporary Annex to the Historic Emporium at its location over on the West side of the Square just where Lonnie Krider Memorial Drive…
Champions routinely acknowledge wishes that come true. When the exterior world reels with disannullery for any cause, the gratitude that Champions feel to see something good happen that they had hoped for is genuine and cause for celebration! Reasons for good cheer abound. Harley and Barbara are feeling better. If…
Champions notice that they like people who look like themselves. They really like people who speak the way that do–or “talk like them,” to illustrate. They often marry people who look like they look. Just study the newspaper to see how often the betrothed or just married pair seems to…
Champions were wakened with bright moonlight in their faces and the promise of a sunny day ahead. The clear sky made for a cold morning, but Champions know that it is winter and do not complain. Seed catalogues make good reading. A sharp knock on Esther Wrinkles’ door the other…
Champions hold fast to their confidence and exhort each other today while it is still called “Today.” The weekend in Champion was much improved by a visit from Raymond and Esther Howard. Raymond grew up down in Ozark County on the farm his grandfather homesteaded there. After he finished school,…
Sunday found Champions responding to the slowness of the arrival of the weather front that was promised and described as a warming trend. Stillness marked the damp winter day when the earlier greens turned to gold on the ground and gray as the fog took the tops of the hills…
There is no denying that Champion is a rural community. It is thriving, bustling, full of energy and purpose and “ready to do every good work.” It is also quite green even with the deciduous trees bare and the flowerbeds fallow. Pastures take on the appearance of an antique velvet coverlet…
The first week of the New Year found Champions out enjoying the good weather. No complaints were registered; though there is an undercurrent of concern about when and if winter will really arrive. Most Champions are pretty sure that there will really be some serious winter at some point. One…
“Champions stand at the portal of their new year shoulder to shoulder with optimism, purpose, tolerance, curiosity, compassion, love and gratitude.” That was the situation with Champion at the beginning of last year. The same rowdy crowd is at the door again this year. Champion! Hopefully far flung Champions in…
The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is a special time in Champion. The stresses and pressures of having to have been good are all over; sweet connections with family and dear friends have been reconnected; a few days of wonderful left-overs ease the cooking burden and a little…
Having food and raiment, Champions are there with content. They do good, are rich in good works, ready to distribute and willing to communicate. The pre-Christmas condition in Champion is but little changed from the rest of the year. Festive lights and lighter than average hearts make Champion the ideal…
Saturday morning broke cold and clear–a sparkling twelve degrees with the moon setting in Champion about six thirty, already gone from view when the last lunar eclipse of 2011 took place. Perhaps the summertime eclipse coming in 2014 will give Champions a better view. Meanwhile early birds traveling to and…
Geese are headed south these days. An interested Champion learned that waterfowl frequently prefer to fly at night since the air remains relatively stable with lighter winds and less dramatic pressure and temperature gradients. In the daytime hawks and eagles use thermals, air currents caused by the warming earth, to…
As in all years past, Champions digest their Thanksgiving dinner in a tryptophanic haze awash in Love and Gratitude. To sit at the table with dear family and friends year after year, watching the children grow and the adults grow richer in understanding as they see themselves change as rapidly…
Champions find Gratitude easy. Much needed rain has settled the dust and hunters have taken their prizes home with them leaving the country side wonderfully quiet again. Things can get back to normal just as the Champion Thanksgiving Day Parade forms up. Look for a full report next week. If…
Hunting season is always exciting in Champion. Stories around the stove in the Mercantile include descriptions of just how the buck came over the rise and just how he quartered just so and then turned to present a perfect target and then fell in his tracks. Hunters have been telling…
Champions find themselves in pretty good shape to start out the week. With much needed rain on the way, the garden harvest in, winter’s wood in the shed and a little brighter start to every morning with the time change, there is no complaint to be had by anyone around. …
Last Weeks News – When Champions get in the mood to celebrate, they do it right. The weather was perfect for the occasion and the crowds came pouring in. The Western entry to the square was cordoned off to vehicular traffic and auxiliary parking was made available in a nice…
When Champions get in the mood to celebrate, they do it right. The weather was perfect for the occasion and the crowds came pouring in. The Western entry to the square was cordoned off to vehicular traffic and auxiliary parking was made available in a nice flat Fox Creek Farm…
Champions are rejoicing, bringing in their sheaves, saddling up to go for a ride with Bud to no place in particular, getting ready for company as tourist flock in to town for the big Celebration. What a pleasant time of the year. Champions generally feel that way about every time…
Was it Will Rogers who said, “All I know is what I read in the papers?” Champions are the kind of folks who just do not believe everything they read. It is a good thing too. Last week in some publications there was a long, convoluted story leading up to…
The first week in October is routinely marked by speculation concerning the quality of the fall foliage. If there was enough rain at the right time and if the severe heat of mid-summer was not too much and if a number of other unspecified conditions were met favorably, then the…
Champions are adept at being where they are. It goes with the territory. Moreover, Champions are not subject to news black-outs as is the case in New York City where thousands of people have been voicing their discontent with the economy and world politics for ten days. During this time…
One of the highlights of the 29th Champion School Reunion was the guided tour of the Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square. It was fairly empty at the time with no fixtures or merchandise. Vaughn Henson was heard to say that all it…
Monday, Labor Day, found Champions delighted with the cooler temperatures and much immersed in reliving the Champion School Reunion of 2011. It was the twenty-ninth such gathering. The first one had three hundred in attendance. There were fewer this time with numbers ranging from 68 to 80. An astrick (*) beside a name…
Excitement is building as Champion readies itself for the annual school reunion, the twenty-ninth one according to official sources. There will be many there who have attended most of the reunions and some who will be attending their first one. Sadly, some will not make it this year. Royce Henson…
“When it is good, say so.” This is one of the Seven Champion Rules by which to live. And so on this Monday morning the weather is perfect. The sky is blue; the birds are singing; the gardens are burgeoning with healthful food; Champions are relaxed and happy, optimistic…
Extensive rummaging through The Champion News Archives reveals that August 28 will be a 4th birthday celebration for Jenna Brixey and Kalyssa Wiseman. They both have brothers, Jenna’s is younger and Kalyssa’s is older. They are distant cousins since Jenna’s paternal grandfather and Kalyssa’s maternal grandmother are cousins. In any…
Champions awoke on Sunday morning full of gratitude. Every drop is a gift and no Champion takes rain for granted. Some who had not emptied their rain gauges from the recent little rain found themselves looking at something substantially over an inch in the precious little vile. One, perhaps out…
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…
In Champion at the end of July spirits are quite high. Of course, that is the regular situation in the charming burgh as residents make the most of whatsoever and whomsoever is at hand. The long luxurious summer days rather palpate with the delicious heat so longed for back in…
Summertime in Champion is easy as Champions walk about under leafy boughs conducting their business from shade to shade. The gentle quietitude reflects the liberal distribution of harmonious sentiment. The unexpected stirring of a breeze is as a gift that plays itself out in contented smiles on the faces…
Champions have no requirement for others to boast on their behalf. Neither do they boast themselves, as it is unseemly. It is enough to acknowledge with a simple nod of the head or a raised eyebrow the pervasive tranquility and completeness of the place. Laconic locals exchange glances and knowing…
Champions are pleased to be Americans and to sit in safety under their own vines and fig trees where none make them afraid. Here paths are scattered with light and in all their several vocations Champions are useful and accustomed to happiness. It would be inconsistent with the frankness of…
Champions are by their very natures time travelers as they move effortlessly from the present to the past and the future. The cicadas are gone! Everyone knew they were here, but no one seems to be thinking about how they are gone now. One old Champion says it is only…
Champion fathers were much in the thoughts of Champions on Sunday as they often are. Old timers remembered their old time fathers long gone from the world and others remembered with sweet sadness fathers who have only recently passed away. It was good luck for everybody with a dad to…
Unrelenting optimism and profound Gratitude are some of the hallmarks of Champion as a community and of Champions as individuals. One Champion, as she turned to address a long series of kinks and crimps in her garden hose, smiled recalling the absolute delight that she had felt last winter upon…
Contentment is easy in Champion. Champions understand contentment. The First Ripe Tomato in Champion Contest is on for the fifth year in a row. Contest rules require that the tomato be grown in Champion and that the grower be willing to share the tomato with the judges and be willing…
Champions Nellie has been well rewarded for her patience. The sun finally did shine and now it looks ominously like summer. No complaints come from Champion, however, because Champions are busy being Grateful, and it is presumed that Nellie got what she was waiting for. The 25th Denlow School Reunion…
Again Champion finds itself in the catbird seat, at a decided advantage over the whole rest of the world for tranquility and beauty and good fortune–Champions have no complaints and extend their very best thoughts for those in the storm ravaged parts of the country. Against the possibility of recurring…
A little recollection of winters chill is just what Champions enjoy on the very edge of Spring. A brisk breeze at a damp 52 degrees is just enough to spur genuine enthusiasm for the new season. A chance visit to the Village on Thursday revealed some definite sign of multiple…
Mother’s Day in Champion was a beautiful day. That old adage about if it rains on Easter Sunday it will rain the next seven Sundays in a row did not play out and with enough rain in Champion’s bucket already, it was easy to concentrate on Mom. The roadways, the…
Monday morning finds Champion damp again and still grateful. The world around Champion has changed again and Champions stay grateful for domestic tranquility, the common defense and the wonderful Constitution. Huzza! Love and Gratitude goes out to Navy Seals and all those serving the Nation. Burning plastic. If you can…
Champions are keeping their heads above water and glad of it. They are glad for the rain and have no complaints. The bridge over Fox Creek just to the East of Downtown Champion is well underwater and likely to stay that way for a while. The low water crossings North…
The good news in Champion has to do with the whippoorwills and the hummingbirds. These are the sure harbingers of Spring and are as welcome as would be gift of a dozen mushrooms the size of pop cans. The hummers will be here in force before long as the ‘scouts’…
Champions are pleased for the rain, pleased for the good company of friends and family visiting, pleased for the progress in their gardens and various other enterprises. Overall the Champion neck of the woods is quite a pleasing place full of the glories of spring and happy people. A good…
A review of the first week of April over the last five years reveals the following: Good news in Champion (April 9, 2007) is that Spring is back again! During the course of the week assessments will have been made about the degree of freeze damage to trees and shrubs,…
Champions watched the Super-moon set on the first morning of Spring and saw the new season suddenly emerging in bright yellow forsythia and daffodils against deepening greens as the woods are thickening with swelling buds. Dogwoods will soon be showing themselves and redbuds will pink up the woods in their…
The wild unpredictable vicissitudes of Spring are not lost in Champion and Champions stand with bouquets of early flowers and optimism for the warm days ahead. Mushrooms will be gracing certain tables and spring breakers will be out looking for more just to please a sweet grandmother…Meanwhile late Sunday night…
Champions have felt little earthquakes in recent weeks. They are unsettling. As tragedies unfold in other parts of the world, Champions take a moment to reflect on their relative security and their great good fortune. An individual’s fate can turn on a dime, so can the fate of a nation. …
In Champion the reason for hope is always there. People looking on the bright side always have something to look forward to with optimism for a good outcome. Emily Dickinson said, Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tunewithout the words, and never…
Sure signs of Spring in Champion include the emergence of many forgotten bulbs and the swelling of certain buds, and unsettled weather—hot, cold, windy, and wet—all in the space of a few hours. Robins and buzzards come home and watch the geese going farther North. There are subtle shifts in…
An exciting week in Champion brings news of a Valentine gift to beat all gifts. Shelby Elizabeth Ward was born at 6:00 a.m. on Valentine’s Day! Everyone is well and there is a long line of Face-book friends and family saying, “Congratulations!” and good wishes abound. What if when Richard…
Champions felt a great deal warmer at ten below when they heard that Louise’s brother up in Davenport, IA, had eighteen degrees below zero. Kurt over at the post office, said he didn’t know if he would be able to tell the difference between ten below and eighteen below if…
The tranquility of Champion sits unperturbed under another coat of snow. This one was substantial, beautiful and quickly melted. The next one will be what it will be and forward-looking Champions will make the most of it. Cabin Fever has claimed few victims this season and the slowness of pace…
On the eve of potentially bad weather, Champions are cool. Adequate preparation and youthful optimism make the whole prospect of exciting weather…well, exciting! Of course it is not easy for everyone and so intrepid Champion adventurers will be out helping where help is needed. It is Champion. The big, big,…
Champions are comfortable in their pastoral environs—the pleasant rural life—peaceful, simple and natural. The luxury of quiet winter days is spent viewing the glorious ‘ordinary’ of Champion in wind blown puffs of snow bursting in disintegrating monochromatic explosions—sunlit fireworks–white on white, or in the sudden revelation when familiar topography, newly…
Champions are pretty sure that winter is not quite over and some are hoping for some rain and snow. The ground needs it and it is well known that Champions, for the most part, love the weather no matter what it is, most of the time. Champions sympathize with other…
In Champion in January of 2011, numerologists are having a field day—01-02-2011—come on. Then there was 01-10-2011, and of course 01-11-11 and soon 01-20-2011—all very interesting stuff and frequently adding up to 3, 5, or 7. Numerology notwithstanding, in Champion the high level of civility manifescent in the populace is…
Champions stand at the portal of their new year shoulder to shoulder with optimism, purpose, tolerance, curiosity, compassion, love and gratitude. Quite a snazzy bunch. It has been five years since the big ice storm that devastated Springfield and made news the world around. It seems that exciting things go…
Champion hearths and homes are full to the brim with holiday cheer and kinfolks. Champion refrigerators are full of leftovers and little dabs of all kinds of cranberry goop. It is a wonderful time of the year when the stresses are over and folks can just settle back to enjoy…
The unique culture of Champion has the populace looking backward toward a lost, but not forgotten, past while looking forward simultaneously to a vibrant future. The specter of a full lunar eclipse on the full moon of the first morning of winter is most exciting to Champions. It may be…
This time of the year Champions are much given over to reminiscing. Remembered events are often more clear after a passage of time and things that happened this morning or yesterday have to have been significant to compete with a favorite childhood memory or some global event. Some of those…
Champion is the kind of place that makes it easy to express Gratitude. It is a relaxed and peaceful pastoral glen amid hills and fields with the little town square in the middle and the little church down near the creek under the big trees. Louis Untermeyer was not from…
The Blue Moon came to Champion very early Sunday morning bathing the tranquil hills and valleys in a quiet soft silver light. Some define the blue moon as the second full moon in a single month and others adhere to an earlier definition as the third moon of a season…
The sun is shining in Champion and it is cool, but not too cool to work out and so rather than complain in vain about the lack of rain, Champions are out and busy doing all the things that they would not be able to do if it were raining. …
Champions do not rob themselves of the joy of this season by wishing they were in a future or a past one. Pretty much Champions are a here and now kind of people. They consider the lilies how they grow…and the collard greens too. With the possibility of a mild…
In Champion the Bright Side has been so interesting and Champions have been so busy keeping their eye on it that five/sixths of the year have slipped by and already it is November. Bird feeders are going up in hopes that the cardinals and gold finches will find them and…
Champions will stand shoulder to shoulder to say that there is no glory in defeating a weak opponent. The reason they would say such a thing as that is to promote the idea that if it is easy to do or if it requires no thought at all, just anybody…
“Wherever railroads and highways penetrate, wherever newspapers and movies and radios are introduced, the people gradually lose their distinctive local traits and assume the drab color which characterizes conventional Americans elsewhere.” So wrote Vance Randolph in the introduction to his book Ozark Magic and Folklore. Even if satellite television and…
Champions are not able to resist the wisdom and spirit of patience that permeates one of the most picturesque places on the planet. It so often happens that things seem to stay just the same day after day and then suddenly, “Bam!” Change. That is exactly what happened during the…
Champions are just floating on a cloud of satisfaction that the roof on the porch (of the Replica of the Historic Emporium known as Henson’s Store on the North Side of the Square in Down Town Champion) is attached to the building at an angle that precisely duplicates the angle…
Champions are always happy to say that there is no place like home. This is especially true when, for whatever reason, they find themselves out in the big Elsewhere. Frequent phone calls back Home keep distant Champions informed: The flooring is down on the new porch on the Replica of…
Champions are in the charming situation of living in a place that other people admire. One of the Champions at the recent School Reunion was heard to say, “I spent twenty years trying to get out of Champion and the next forty trying to get back.” It seems that Champion…
Champions are a helpful and generous people. One took the opportunity to help the builder unload a few boards the other day and now can strut about saying how he has been ‘helping’ to build the Replica of the Historic Emporium on the North Side of the Square in Downtown…
The first Champion School Reunion was held in 1984. They have been going strong ever since. Attending this year: Robert and Connie Brown, Ivel Brown, Pete Proctor, Eva Henson Phillips, Tommy and Barbara Sutherland, Jerry and Shauna Smith, Fae Krider, Charles Lambert, Hanna Faith Jensen, Ruby Proctor, Barbara Proctor Cooper,…
