Readers Branch Off With Tree Memories
A great many readers responded to my recent column about a majestic old tree I saw get cut down, including Jim O’Grady quoting my great predecessor in this space:
“In 2006 Chuck Thomas wrote a column titled: ‘County’s most endangered
species’ bemoaning the replacement of so many trees for condos,” O’Grady wrote. “He ends his piece with the following parody of Joyce Kilmer’s poem ‘Trees’:
I think that we shall never see, / A condo as lovely as a tree; / And when each orchard is a mall, / We may never see a tree at all.
Figures Chuck would outshine my 700 words in just one stanza.
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“I think ‘Trees’ should be required reading for everyone,” echoed Virginia Scotland. “At breakfast I asked my adult son did he remember a favorite tree?
“He said when he was a small lad he remembered an almond tree we had in our back yard when we were living in Lindsey, Calif. and all the orange trees surrounding us and walking on all the fallen blossoms like walking in the snow.
“I am 86 years old and I still remember climbing up pepper trees so full of ants and think this is where the term ‘ants in your pants’ started.”
Scotland concluded, and so very rightly: “We are so fortunate to live in Ventura, a little slice of heaven with ocean and agriculture on all sides and plenty of trees.”
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Ed Campbell of Ventura also had a grove of tree memories to share:
“I recall all the many, many trees that have influenced my life. The first tree that comes to mind is a Jacaranda. A young boy in 1946, age 7, fell from this tree, then about 20-feet tall, now some 70 years later 35-plus-feet tall, and very much alive. I ended up with a neck injury and now fused vertebrae – and a broken bit of pride as when I fell, I hit my wagon wheel below and broke it off.
“Most memorable tree during my youth was a five-crown walnut tree in our back yard. It so loved me when I climbed on its long flexible braches and shook of the ripe walnuts in the fall.”
Campbell’s love of trees continued into adulthood.
“Around 1985 I planted two white pine trees on our side yard in CT with my two little girls,” he shared. “When I last ‘Goggled’ the old homestead they were about 30-feet, and doing fine, and I am sure home to may birds.”
More recently, he planted a pair of Red Leaf Forest Phoebes at his Ventura home. “Some 10 years later and about 20-feet tall, they are the pride of the block,” he says. “They are an eastern tree, therefore the leaves turn brown from blood red in the fall; come mid-February, tiny pink flowers pop open, to be followed by tiny heart shape leaves of red, the full glory by May 1, with lots of shade.”
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“Your column about the ancient tree that was felled brought back many
happy memories, including camping in the Redwoods as a child with my family,” wrote Joy Hamlat of Camarillo.
“My mother will turn 100 soon. I am in the process of going through things
at what has been the Oxnard family home since 1954. In the yard at the old family home is a large Jacaranda tree with a rugged trunk that I couldn’t begin to reach around. I have a photo of my younger brother, Jeff, and me beside the tree almost 60 years ago when the tree was only a skinny twig!
“Each morning, I deliver breakfast to many hungry sparrows and doves who
flock to the bird feeder hanging from the tree.”
Joy concluded with a story about a different tree – her Family Tree. Last month she celebrated the addition of two new branches: the birth of a grandson to her daughter and a grandson to her son.
“It amazes me,” Joy writes, “that almost exactly a century spans the difference
in age between my mom, born June 12, 1913, and the two new little ones in May 2013.”
Talk about a beautiful growing tree.
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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for the Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. Woody’s new book, WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” is available at: www.WoodyWoodburn.com