Climbing Trees

Me up in a tree at Camp Timber Trails in the summer of 1971.

When you are a kid, there is nothing better than a good climbing a tree. I was a fearless tree climber when I was young. (I still am truthfully.) When I see a tree that is just built for climbing, I can’t help myself. It just calls my name and begs me to come on up and explore its branches and see how high I can climb.

Now the best climbing tree in the whole world is located on Blue Hills Avenue in Hartford, Connecticut behind my grandmother’s old home. It is a giant old oak tree. And it was huge when I was a kid. And when I snuck by at night a few years ago to check on that sucker, it was even more massive. So I climbed it right then and there. Thankfully, I was hidden by the blackness of night and no barking dogs gave me away. Or I might have had some awkward explaining to do to the new home owners (and possibly the police). But it sure felt good to be back in Nana’s tree again after all these years. But it sure was hell on my panty house. It’s best not to climb a tree in a dress.

The kids who lived next door to me in Enfield had a great climbing tree in their yard. The problem was that their mother didn’t like them playing with us regular neighborhood kids much. So we would REALLY have to suck up to get them to into that tree. And we did, because it was worth it. It’s funny, I lived next to that family for over thirteen years and I can hardly remember any of their kid’s names. But I can remember every branch of that tree. Boy it was an awesome climbing tree. You could really go up high that baby. And our houses all looked so different from up there.

Now the tree that almost got the best of me was a Willow tree in Cheshire, Massachusetts. Willow trees grow very tall and fast. But, just so you know, they are not the strongest trees in the world. But there was a gigantic Willow on the foot path to my friend Robin Newton’s house. And what was neat about this tree was that it did not grow up straight, but leaned over a cliff so that the top of it could catch the sun light and grow. To climb this tree you would have to shimmy up its leaning trunk like a snake for quite a while, before you got to any branches that you could start to pull your self up on and go high. It was a very unusually tree and fun to climb, because once you got up over to cliffs and looked out – you felt like you could see forever. Each tree holds a unique treasure. And that was the treasure found in climbing that tree.

Well one day, the kids that I ran in a pack with, dared me to climb to the top of that tree. And because I was the kind of kid that could never turn down a dare, I took them up on the challenge. And all was going real well for a while, it was really a piece of cake for a good tree climber like me. When all of a sudden, one of the branches I grabbed hold of decided to crack. And quicker than you can say Rumblestillskin, I was dangling like a little helpless sap over the cliff from a branch that was about hanging on by at thread. Down below me were pricker bushes and below them granite rocks. Not to mention it was one hec of a drop down. So quickly sizing up my options I started to scream my head off for my dad’s help. And a couple of the kid’s high tailed it to my house to go get him while I just dangled in the air.

Well my dad did get there. He got there just in time to see the branch break and his only daughter drop like a stone onto a bed of pricker bushes which I would not normally recommend – because they are painful as HELL – but in this case, they broke my fall and probably saved by life.

Amazed that I was still alive. I will never forget how fast my father came flying down that cliff. He scooped off of the bushes and said: “Sam are you all right?” Now of course I wasn’t alright, but I also knew I had an audience of wide-eyed kids all staring at me, so I said in my bravest voice: “Of course, I’m alright, what took you so long?” Then I buried my head in my dad’s shirt because I didn’t want the other kids see my start to cry.

Then he took me home and my mom patched me up. Them they both tucked me in bed. But before they kissed me goodnight, they made me swear never to try to climb that tree again. Which of course I agreed to.

And the next morning after breakfast, the oddest thing happened. I was on the footpath, to Robin Newton’s house when I heard that old Willow calling my name. So I climbed the sucker. And this time I made it to the top without breaking my neck. The view was never clearer or more beautiful from the top of that tree then it was that day.