[gardeners] childhood tree
Allen and Judy Merten (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 16 Jul 1998 09:23:04 -0500
Hi Alice,
I think that all of us were glad you felt like venting to your
friends,US. Thanks for considering us to be close enough to you to let
your feelings out.
I know exactly how you feel about that Maple tree. I am sure you
have seen some of the posting I have made about my Great-grandmother
that raised me for my first 8 yrs. When she became unable to live
alone,we found this out when she set her bathrobe on fire while wearing
it,webrought her to live with us. About a yr before she died she sold
her house in Galveston. Some months later we drove by just to see the
old house my mother and later I had been raised in. We were grief
stricken to see what had been done. The man who bought the house had
poured green cement over the entire front and back yards. The two
wonderful trees that I climbed everyday were gone. Grandmas' perinneal
flower beds were gone. The walkway from the sidewalk to the porch had
been lined with Hibiscus,gone. The greatest travesty of all to me as a
10 yr old boy was he had cut down every fruit tree in the backyard,
figs, red,yellow and purple plums, grapevines, and bananna trees that
had little purple banannas on them every year that did not have a
freeze. My Grandmother would fry those little purple banannas for our
breakfast in honey and butter for our breakfast or a snack.My
Grandfather had brought back the bananna trees from Central America when
he came home from the Army.
I would have gladly murdered that man. My Mother cried so much she
had to park the car. She made us promise not to tell Grandma what had
happened to her yard. She was afraid that it would give Grandma a heart
attack. I guess the semi tropical beauty of the place made him afraid he
would haves to do to much yard work.
It still makes me angry to think about it 38yrs later!!
Allen
Bastrop Co.,Tx