A landmark. It was everybody’s tree, standing “on look out,” guarding school age children, league baseball players, and Coal Creek adventurers. The foliage changed with the seasons, marking the passage of time. Its beauty surpassed its smaller “neighbors.” This tree witnessed the “comings and goings “of its passersby, young and old. It waved goodbye and sang hello with the whisperings of its large leaves. It was everyone’s favorite tree to climb- except “Tubby” Perkins.
Like most boys his age, Tubby took the challenge to climb THE TREE- only he got stuck. I remember passing by on my two-wheeler on the way to the ballpark when I heard Tubby shouting, “HELP, HELP!” I am not sure what became of Tubby that day or since, but I still have that image in my mind… poor old Tubby Perkins.
Eventually “THEY” termed “our tree” a “roadblock” to progress. Evidently, the traffic flow on Second East needed to be revamped. We didn’t go down without a fight. My ten year old sister Heather, or as we called her in those days “Howie,” stood proudly in her Punky Brewster fashion and peach framed glasses on the live 6 o’clock evening news holding a painting of “The Tree,” an MD Weaver original, shouting, “Save our tree!” A young environmentalist was born!
Unfortunately, they cut down our “Giant.” Only its story remains, and questions…questions like, “Whatever happened to Tubby Perkins?”