Grandfather Tree

This blog was inspired by, and is dedicated to two of my 360 buddies..Jon, and Martha. Your wonderfull entries about trees made me remember this. Martha I believe I already told you this story a short time after we were introduced. We all three share a mutual love of trees, and nature in general.

The tale begins several years ago. I was living with Lori, and the girls in a small trailer court, out in the country. It was beautiful there, with a small woods behind the trailer. Rolling fields, and a huge pond. You could sit out at my fire pit in the summer, and listen to the bullfrogs at night, with a huge yellow moon riding the sky. It was paradise.

I had a love affair going with the small forrest behind the trailers. I used to climb the fence, and go into the cool of the trees, and sit on my days off. Drink beer, and read. I read "The Fellowship Of The Ring" The first book of the J.R.R. Tolkien triology in those woods. I had named several of the standout trees. There was Dancing tree, Sick tree, Hairy tree, The Twins (two mirror image identical trees), and there was Grandfather tree. He was a giant. He had to be close to 200 feet tall. Huge! Over five, and a half feet around at the base. I used to talk to him. I have actually stood, and talked to this tree. I've hugged him. Ok. Call me crazey,I don't care. I loved this giant tulip poplar. I watched him turn gold, and fill a football field sized yard full of leaves, three seasons. Watched him bud out, and turn green, three more.

I noticed when the girls ( Lori Kacy, and mackenzi) came to pick me up one day that Kacy seemed kind of quiet. The closer we got to the trailer on Fisk road the more I noticed these looks between her, and Mackenzi. As we made the turn into the trailer court I saw several gaps in the treeline behind the trailers. My heart sank. He was gone. Grandfather Tree lay in pieces on the ground. I ran from the van weeping, Kacy right behind me.."Daddy!" she wailed."Daddy it's ok..." She held her daddy , knowing it was not ok. I stood by the huge flat stump, weeping in racking sobs. They were logging paradise. The twins were next. They buldozed a flat place, and put up a cell tower where they stood. It was the begining of the end.

A few months later,Lori had decided I was cramping her style(translate: she couldn't smoke dope 24/7) so she kicked me out. I was only spending weekends with my babies, and doing my best to keep the riff-raff at bay. I was standing by the fence looking into the dim coolness of the forrest one saturday morning. I glanced wistfully down at Grandfather Tree's stump, and there he was. Emerging from the side. A sappling with those tiny, but distintive tulip poplar leaves! I was estatic! Grandfather tree would live again. I had a plan. I waited till sunday evening after we came home from church, and I carefully dug the tiny sappling up. He looked about like the little xmas tree Charlie Brown brought home. Maybe a foot, and a half tall. Three or four leaves it looked like he didn't know what to do with. But he came from Grandfather tree's dna. I knew that, and bygod he was going to live!

So I brought him here. Where I live with my sister, and bro in law. Two confirmed tree huggers too. I planted him in the center of the back yard. And he is there right now. He is over twenty feet tall, and he is beautifull!! I talk to him. I haven't hugged him yet. I can still put my hands around his girth. But not for long. And even though he is still a baby by tree standards, I still call him Grandfather tree.

joe is a tree hugger from way back.(and may be half hobbit)