Character, Creation and a Couple of Tree Huggers
A father, a daughter and love of divine creations
I was raised in a park.
At least that is how my mother referred to our one acre lot of land in northern Ohio. Her “private park.” Appropriately, we lived on Forest Drive.
There were trees - many trees. Mostly, unattractive,tall lanky black walnuts. She counted 110 if recollection serves me.
As a teenager, mowing the lawn was easy. Mostly moss and pools of rain water collected in spots. Grass was simply unable to grow. Autumn was dreadful when those heavy leaves would inevitably descend. Week after week of collecting leaves.
It was often suggested by many that the trees be “thinned” to facilitate more undergrowth and alleviate the moss invading the side of our clapboard home. Frances would have no part of such nonsense.
In her eyes, trees were the creation of God and home to His other devine creations, including song birds. Frances appreciated all seasons in her “park” and nature was not to be disturbed.
She would often rest on a small green wood and iron park bench listening to the birds, reading a book or writing letters.
Her escape to nature. Private solitude. A country girl.
She would revel in this space for 25 years until her passing. Every one of those walnuts survied her. She would have had it no other way.
Tree Hugger Defined
“The term “tree huggers” originally referred to the nearly 350 members of a branch of Hinduism who died in 1730 while trying to protect their village's trees from being destroyed by soldiers seeking raw materials for a new royal palace.”
“A symbol of environmental activism and a practice associated with increased connection with nature.”
A Vintage Activist
He died in 1946, ten years before my birth and was 60 years old. My maternal grandfather, Carlton Lucius Reed was rather young by today’s life expectancy and had suffered heart irregularities and respiratory issues for the past eight years.
The son of Miles Edward Reed, and a lineage of Reed doctors traced back to Concord and the Revolutionary war.
Carlton owned and operated the Reed Hardware in Genesee, PA very successfully until, due to failing health, sold the business in the late 30’s. The building stands and continues to operate as a hardware and building supply to this day. The floors and ceiling remain the same 90 years later. The name has changed.
Carlton was wed to Grace Adelaide Daily for 25 short years before his death. Survived by my mother, Frances and a brother, Ramon.
Grandmother Grace (Nan) was the daughter of William Benjamin Daily, the owner of the W.B. Daily general store at the east end of Main Street in Genesee.
As one strolls the short distance between the two business establishments, you can’t miss the red brick Genesee Methodist Church, where my paternal grandfather was the reverend from 1929-1932. Directly behind the church is the Reed family home, where my mother was born, raised and married.
Genesee is a Reed, Daily, Rowe genealogical family affair.
Time changes but the sentiments don't.
I am learning that familial sentiments strengthen with age and spend more and more time reflecting and learning about those lives before me.
Living in the Past!
Character, Civility and Carlton
As my father wrote in 1995:
The hardware didn’t change at all during the many years he operated it. He wouldn’t modernize because his customers were mostly farmers who had little appreciation for high-falutin stuff. For many years this Methodist had another reason to leave things undisturbed. Father Coyle, the Catholic priest who lived across the street, liked to join the idle conversations of the group of men who frequently congregated there. Because he was suffering progressive blindness, the aisles were kept clear of impediments that might cause him to trip.
Vintage Tree Hugger
Carlton loved nature, especially the wild fauna and flora. Destroying trees was equal to taking a life. His home was on a four-acre lot of grass shadowed by old maples and oaks. Three quarters of it was fenced in (on two of the sides, by the confluence of two streams) for nature to do as she pleased.
One morning, as he was whistling his way to work, he passed a vacant lot where two or three linesmen for the telephone company were preparing to fell a large tree. Responding to his question the men told him that it was interfering with the path of a new line they were about to install.
“Have you the owner’s permission to remove that gorgeous beechnut? He asked. They had not.
“Keep your saws away from it,” he ordered. “I am going to see the owner. I’m sure he has more concern for it than either you or your company.”
(In those days it was not uncommon in these little, carefree villages, for people to assume license to modify things to suit themselves-even to adjust lot lines!)
In about thirty minutes Carlton returned with a paper in his hand: “The owner says you are not to harm that tree.”
The line foreman countered, “Who is the owner? I want to speak to him, myself!”
“I am the owner,” Carlton told the astonished men. “ I have just bought this lot.” He showed them the bill of sale. “You may install your line, but you are not to touch any trees.”
The beechnut is still there.
I now have clarity why Frances refused to “thin” the walnut trees.
Love, Faith, Family, Country and Civility
Living in the Past
Thank you, Thomas, for sharing your « family tree ». I’m a tree hugger myself, not an activist but a grateful one. I have a huge 51 year old fig tree, we were born the same year, in my garden and I love it dearly, it is a member of our family. Each summer, we take quarter under the shade of its canopy and live there until the coolest hours of the night. From spring to fall, he smells incredible, a very sweet fruit fragrance that conquers my bedroom every morning when I open my window. Unfortunately, during fall, with its leaves decaying, it tends to smell like the feet of a teenage boy who did sports all day but I love it nonetheless. I hug it very regularly and tell it how thankful I am to have it in our lives.
Trees are our guardians, they provide us with the oxygen we need to breathe and fruits we need to eat. They watched proudly and lovingly over us and stand still very long after we pass. We should respect them and take care of them for that as we would for any ancestors of our human family. Lots of love.