American Elm...

The other day, we heard a knock at the side door. Paul went to see what was going on. There was a very scruffy looking man, who looked exactly like Groundskeeper Willie with the only difference being the lack of a Scottish accent...and that the fellow standing in front of Paul smelled so bad he could knock a turkey buzzard off a manure wagon. The fellow certainly had the crazed aura of Groundskeeper Willie. Apparently he had been hired by our neighbor to take down her large elm tree (for a paltry $2k). He wanted to use our driveway to remove cut portions of the tree. It is sad to see yet another elm go. We'll take some photos as the work progresses.

We'd trust a Simpsons' character with a chainsaw...
...well before we'd trust the fellow that was knocking at our door...

All this set Paul in to a flashback to his childhood. His hometown in upstate New York State (a relative term depending on who you talk to in New York State, so let's just say the Central Leatherstocking Region). Like many American cities, Paul's hometown had stately elms lining the streets. When Dutch Elm disease finally devastated them, the elms in his hometown were all gone.

There was a large elm in front of Paul's parents' house when he was young. According to Paul's parents it was between the sidewalk and the street, yet it's branches reached over the house (if you've seen the depth of their front yard, that is pretty impressive). When Paul called his parents to inquire about getting a photo, they told him about when his father's parents came to visit them for the first time decades ago, they were amazed by elms lining their city's streets and the cathedral effect they had as they touched each other over the center line. If Paul's parents can find a photo, we'll put it on the blog. For now, we found this on Flickr...

Perhaps these elms here are similar to what Paul's hometown was like...
Photo by photo_martha, Creative Commons License 2.0