When I was a kid my mom brought home a small tree from the grocery store that was about an inch high. She nurtured it through the years and planted it in the back yard when it was a foot tall. From there it grew to about 30' and thrived under her care.
When she and my dad moved to their restored Victorian home in Alameda she had few demands. One was my dad stay out of any planning for the kitchen and the other was that her tree was coming with her. It took an arborist, a crane, a flatbed semi, and the police to clear the way to get the tree transplanted into it's new location.
When I moved into our new house in Utah there was a flag pole in the front yard. I'm not much of a flag person so I dug it up and gave it the toss. In it's place I planted a Blue Spruce just like my mom's in memory of her. It started off at 4' and now, 5 years later, is more than 7' tall. The first year I strung Christmas lights all around it. Since they are solar powered I left them on all year long. People have used it as a reference when giving directions through the neighborhood. They can thank my mom.
Michael was on of my very best friends. He was one of the first people I met when I moved to San Diego many years ago. We shared a house in Ocean Beach and had many, many adventures together. He was creative, energetic, and not just a little crazy.
Later Michael and Nita got married and had a house in Hillcrest. It had a very tall tree in the front yard. Michael would decorate it with lights, adding a few strings every year as it grew taller and taller. Year after year, lights and more lights, taller and taller, …
It got to be such a spectacle that the pilots landing at the San Diego airport would tip their wing and point out the tree to the passengers inside. People would come from near and far to drive past the amazing tree of lights. Finally the neighbors complained that they couldn't get in and out of their homes because the traffic was so bad. The city claimed that an ambulance or fire truck couldn't navigate through the mobs of people and ordered him to shut it down.
Today we were doing our final round of Christmas shopping and visited our favorite nursery looking for last minute inspiration. There were these small pine trees about a foot tall that caught my attention. I asked one of the people about it: how high would it get? what care would it need? was it and indoor or outdoor plant? He asked me what I was going to do with it. A curious question I thought until he explained that many people bought them for decoration and then tossed them away after the holidays. That depressed me a little. I bought one of them and I can assure you that, like my mom, I will nurture it and see that it thrives!
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