The yard light is still in front of it, but it appears that the power supply has gone modern and underground, judging by the gray meter next to it.
I took this picture on Friday.There used to be a galvanized woven-wire fence line near the tree, dividing the back yard from the pasture on our old place. The fence is gone.
On the far side of the fence was where Topsy, the Elmo Hegg's pony, spent a summer with us in 1958. They were building Jefferson High School in Alexandria for the baby boomers that year and the Heggs, who lived near the construction, wanted Topsy to have a peaceful summer.
We gladly saddled and rode Topsy around and around the bridal path past this tree all summer long.
Even our neighbor, Winifred Hapke, put on her old jodpers to give Topsy a spin. Her old fart husband Al didn't think much of it and just kept on mowing his yard with his green self-propelled reel mower, surely the only one of its kind in Lake Mary Township. You could putt on his lawn, but nobody had any golf clubs. Al taught clarinet lessons and on quiet afternoons you could hear the Flight of the Bumblebee through the trees.
Brother Steve Rolfsrud was about three years old, I think, when a nasty snapping turtle approached his barefoot big toe under this tree. Our family spaniel mix, Nicky, barked and created such havoc that nothing bad happened until Dad arrived with a crowbar and killed the snapper. Looking at the condition of Steve's appendages today, don't know if it would have made much difference if the turtle had succeeded.
Black and white Nicky was a hero and truly loved. Then one day she got hit by a car and limped around on three pegs until we put her down.
Grade school classmate Alan Norling's Dad fought in Korea with a German Shepherd. He got to the keep the dog. Its name was Lucky -- but it wasn't for us. Lucky had an attitude about kitties. One day Mrs. Norling parked the car near the tree and let Lucky get out. Big mistake. Lucky spotted one of our kitties. The kitty made a beeline for this tree. Lucky won. Mrs. Norling apologized for the dead kitty.
The Norlings lived on the north shore of Lake Andrew. I saw my first television show there. The Pinky Lee Show. I remember elephants and a circus tent.
Iver Gulbranson admired Dad a lot. Iver worked for the phone company. Dad didn't have a telephone in his creative writing studio (see photo below) but he thought an intercom to the house might be nice. Iver volunteered to set Dad up and one Saturday Iver and I stretched the war surplus commo cable from the house to the studio, using the telephone pole seen in the photo. Big ol' Iver had spikes on his boots and jacked himself up that shaky pole. Damndest thing I'd seen. Before you know it, there was an intercom from the house to the studio and now Dad could tell us what to do, remotely.
For many years there was a mailbox attached to this tree. It contained clothes pins to service the nearby clothes line, which was heavily used until mother purchased an electric clothes dryer from Dudley Gawthrop of Dud's Electric. Think about it. Would you ever buy an electrical appliance from a man named Dud?
But then again, just who would ever buy an Edsel?
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Next to this tree there is a walnut tree. I have a photo of it too, my friends. There are stories that go with it. Just not now.
