Some of my Favorite Trees

Introduction

Hi,

I got a letter with survey and 3 cards for Arbor Day. I filled out the survey and made a small donation. If you are reading this, I’m dead. No, that’s not right. If you are reading this you’re dead? No, if you’re reading this, I have decided to give you a card that claims to plant a tree in your honor. Along with this card, I have sent a ridiculous note about trees. I don’t know why, it came to me and I was obsessed with this for a day. I hope my printer paper comes soon so I can send it away and stop having these tree thoughts pop into my head. I hope this letter finds you well and we are not dead until long after this letter is read. The first 2 started to almost rhyme by accident. I’m no poet, you know it.

Love Charlie

First thoughts 

Sky Day/Star Night Tree 

The main tree. The first tree in the front with its prickly Porcs. You know, the “porcs” from the porcupine? I remember running in the house as a child saying the porcs got me! However, I’m not sure I actually said this aloud. Sky tree bends and hangs over the street. It once split into 3 main branches, but is now only 2. I guess it hung too far for the safety of the car. The neighbor cut off the branch to shut up his wife Blanche? It’s okay some days the 2 branches form a heart with tree across the way. The bend contours just for me, I fit like a key. When I lean against the tree and look up, the sky is there for me to see. All the stars at night and the moon when the time is right. It feels like I’m standing in my bed and I’m glad were not dead.

My Christmas Tree 

My Christmas Tree, My Christmas Tree,
How steadfast are your branches!
Your boughs help to protect the mail,
Even when there’s rain and hail
My Christmas Tree, My Christmas Tree,
How steadfast are your branches!

My Christmas Tree, My Christmas Tree,
What happiness befalls me when oft
at joyous Christmas-fight
Your form holds all my twinkling lights.
My Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
What happiness befalls me
My Christmas Tree, My Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson
That even though your growth was slow
Your strength and beauty will still flow.
My Christmas Tree, My Christmas Tree,
Your boughs can teach a lesson.

Reference: Mailbox under tree, close enough to door I can throw lights on it, growth was stunted under awning now is taller than house, looks like Christmas tree. Growing up it had 3 neighbors that made it look like we were in the middle of the forest when playing on the porch as children. I still get that feeling now, even without the other trees. Like I’m sitting in a cabin in the woods.

The Moon Tree

This tree is in the moon corridor where only the moonlight reaches at night. Without the moon, I cannot see through here and it scares the crap out of me. A few weeks ago I cleared out some space around the trunk and was even thinking of placing a bench there. A great moon view seat! After I cleared that space, I notice some animal has decided it to be the perfect place to poop. The first time I think it was a cat, but the second time the poop got even bigger! If the third poop gets even bigger, I will launch an investigation for possible werewolves during the full moon. Each poop appeared after the full moon. Another view of this tree is the death view. I had a vivid dream that I died here by the gate. I was looking to the sky at something and fell backward. The dream went black and emptiness filled me. Good thing for me I mostly stand there looking at the moon and my death was during the day, but you know what they say about dreams being backward. So I imagine myself at night looking to the opposite direction and falling forward! Going along the same thinking I should expect light and fullness. I always keep my head on a swivel in the moon corridor. Don’t want to get caught dead staring at the moon. I should at least get that bench so I don’t fall. This tree once had an old chair hanging in it. The snow was so heavy and bent it in to the house and I threw the broken old chair up there to knock down some snow! It did not come back. I trimmed that branch off the house a few years ago and ritually burned parts of the chair. I planted this tree, maybe Val helped, I don’t remember.

911 Shed Tree 

This tree for many years was a great doghouse and shed, but is mainly a shed now. It keeps my lawnmower hidden along with a couple I broke. It is one fat tree, probably intended to be trimmed like a shrub. Each winter the snow would open it up and I would go out and knock off the snow. It just kept getting wider with a nice chimney down the center for the birds to fly down. I also love using it as cover when urinating in the yard (Urinal tree?). For some reason the thing that I always think of when looking at the tree is 911. I remember working in the yard on a Saturday after 911 watching Notre Dame Football on an old black and white TV. Mom gave me a strand of flag lights and asked me to put them on the tree. I never took them off! If you look a couple of feet inside fatty, (almost want to change name to Fatty now) you see the flag lights from 2001 sitting in the tree.

Hagerstown Tree 

I never stumbled upon a state award winning tree. I was very excited and a little disappointed. It appeared that it had seen better days, just like Hagerstown. It was a huge tree. Its location next to the haunted house and across the street from the park was nice. What do I know, there seemed to be plenty of big tall trees around. When a walked a distance back and looked around to gain some perspective, I said to myself, that tree is a still a winner and the biggest and look at that tiny house there, are there any shadows in the windows? Hagerstown has a great park, free art museums, art & culture trail, haunted house, library, and plenty of ex-cons, addicts, and confederate bodies. I used to walk the streets and allies here in the winter imagining I was a peaky blinder and secret leader of the free cell phones. Many in Hagerstown thought I was the boss.

Emma Peach Tree

I could not write this one, it made me cry thinking of Dead Emma. If I could paint, I would paint this tree above ground with its roots going through Emma’s bones underground.

Big Tree in the Corner 

I see it like it was yesterday sailing over the top of the tree, the first time I hit a Wiffle ball over the top of the huge tree! The ball landed in the church lot across the street!

Rest in Tree Pieces

Willow Living Tree 

I loved waking in the morning and imagining I was in the rain forest or exotic location when I looked out the window and saw the top of this tree blowing in the wind!

The Tree 

Tree I would climb and sit under. I sacrificed for Rose Garden Sun. It was just a weed, not in great shape and too close to the electric pole, but I will always remember sitting in and under the tree. I should place something there at the hole where you once stood. Thanks

Honorable mentions or just mentions 

Big Dying Tree in the Corner 

Big neighbors tree in the corner is mostly dead. Provides great widow maker fire wood. I always place my arms above my head passing on a windy day. Which way will it fall?

Big tree with the ugly knot bulge I had a dream of a man standing against this tree out my window. Why would someone stand here? I walked over and even stood there. Weeks later I’m here looking out the window and a group is out there and appear to be selling drugs by the tree. Did I dream this or one night wake up and look out and see a man and go back to sleep? I wonder what formed that big knot bulge in the trunk.

Infamous 

Focus Executioner Tree

You’re awfully fond of that dog. I might still be driving a 2001 Ford Focus SE today.

Willow Dead Tree 

Thanks to Isabel 2003, I’m so fat now without my Basketball Hoop. It looked like a giant spider in the yard with lighting flashing! For a moment, I imagined it like a great horror scene that lingers in my mind forever. Even though it destroyed my hoop and made me fat, it is the one lasting memory of the hoop and the tree. That 1 instant when a giant spider had crushed my hoop and was headed for the door.

Trees, Trees, and More Trees! 

The tree in the background of Clare Stone’s funeral at Loudon Park Cemetery.
The pine over a grave at Loudon Park Cemetery.
The little dead looking tree at Gardens of Faith.
The mimosa tree that I keep cutting down on the side of the house.
The tree that blocks the sun from Dawn’s pool.
The huge tree that sits alone in a yard by itself on Glenmore Ave.
The tree next door that sends seeds twirling down in the air.
I believe it’s gone now, but the old tree that caught the balloons in St. Michael’s lot.
The pink colorful tree that grows outside the church, I missed it this year.

Sometimes I look at the trees in the distance and wonder, can I find that tree?
I wonder where it is and what’s below?
I used think on the way to work, I would just drive away and find a random tree in the distance.
Could I even find it?
Maybe one day I will.

Love Char