June 10, 2021 at 1:12 p.m.
Wonders of my world
Out on a limb
At my childhood home in Bloomington, Minn., there was a Mountain Ash tree in the front yard. It was the backdrop for a picture taken of my sister, Yvonne, and myself on the day of our First Communion at Saint Bonaventure Catholic Church. The berries from the tree were the makings of jam and pie filling for my sister, Theresa and I. We would smash the berries to make jam and jelly, and put a layer of the mashed berries in the center of a mud pie. I wonder if we ever tried to eat the berries?
In the back yard of our home in Bloomington, there was a "Whirlybird" tree. Surely you've seen a whirlybird tree, aka maple tree. The seed pod of a maple tree has a seed on one end with a wing-like blade on the other end, resembling the rotary blade of a helicopter. The kids in my family spent many hours standing on the big limbs of the tree dropping whirlybirds, watching the seed spin its way slowly to the ground. Next to the whirlybird tree there were apple trees. I wonder how many apples we consumed each year?[[In-content Ad]]
In the neighbor's yard was a very large climbing tree. The Haugen's tree may have been elm. It towered above the fenceline between our yards and had extra large limbs to sit on. One time, while sitting out on the limb, I was coaxed into jumping from the limb to the ground. Since I had spent many hours climbing trees in our back yard, it didn't seem to be a problem. I leaped to the ground. Following the leap, I was helped back to our house where I spent the next several days sitting with my ankle elevated, while the instigator waited on me. My ankle was sprained.
Trees with big limbs, that jut out at a 90 degree angle from the trunk, make a marvelous horse for children with a great imagination. That was the kind of tree found at my grandparent's farm in Brevik. It was either an oak or black walnut tree. Regardless of the species, it was a large enough "horse" to hold three, sometimes four passengers all at once. I must have had flashbacks from the jump off Haugen's tree, and admired the horse tree from the ground. The apple trees at Grandpa and Grandma Berger's house were another favorite spot for all the kids. We climbed the tree, ate the apples and helped pick apples for grandma's homemade chunky applesauce. I remember their disappointment when a bear came in the night and broke part of the tree off. I wonder if all their climbing grandchildren made the limb weak?
In the yard of my children's childhood home, was a sprawling Silver Popple tree. It had a limb that protruded from the main trunk at about a 75 degree angle. That was the limb the girls "hung out" on. My girls spent the better part of their childhood hanging upside down from that limb. They had a playhouse in the yard, but preferred spending time in the tree. The tree had enough significance in Alissa's life, she included the tree in her high school senior portraits. The photographer even captured her in her favorite position, upside down, knees bent around the limb, hands and long hair dangling downward.
Not all trees have to be the climbing variety to be a kid favorite. Brad recalls a cedar tree he planted at his parents' home. He pulled it's roots out of it's original home by a swamp and planted it in the yard. It was home plate for backyard baseball games for Brad, some of his siblings, nieces and nephews. When coming into home plate, Brad said he would jump over the tree. Today, the tree remains near the corner of the home where his parents lived. It reaches far enough into the air, a pole vaulter wouldn't be able to clear it.
We have one climbing tree in our yard, it's a whirlybird tree! We have some scruffy looking jack pines, a spruce, some Norway pines and two apple trees. But the favorite trees in our yard, the flowering crabapple trees, are bright pink in the spring and a berry buffet for the deer and birds in the fall and winter. They aren't the best for climbing, but they sure look great in pictures.
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