CLAY AND WATTLES

Maggie

I finally made up my mind after many years that poor Maggie had to go – I bade her goodbye yesterday evening and the cutter started and will finish today. I hated to do it – but after about 25-26 years, the roots were above ground, there was no grass around the trunk, and she was just messy – leather leaves that Paul had to deal with every year. Not long ago I told him to get someone to do it. I made up my own mind, though he had said for years that the leaves just would not chop up under the mower and they don’t decay very well at all. She was beautiful, and my tribute to Mississippi. I kept a 6-inch or so piece of one of her limbs, counted the rings, and there are as far as I can tell about 26. Amy remembers standing up beside the tree for many years as they grew together. But yesterday I gave her a big hug, a kiss and a thank you. I will miss her wonderful lemon-scented blossoms in May and June, and the shade she gave that was partly the cause of her demise. Now Paul has to dig up the dozens of roots and hopefully we’ll have some grass. Otherwise the yard would have been a big mud puddle when it finally does rain.

The place where the tree stood will make a nice place for a studio to be built or set, possibly even extending the garage. Then Uncle Wendell's buckeyes (from the seeds he gave Paul) can grow up around the shop, and Joe's oak (from a sprout that began in his yard) can shade the front door. If I ever get my "studio," I think I'll christen it "The Maggie Mae."