Carl’s Tree

My brother brought a stick home from Lowell School’s Arbor Day celebration in the mid-1950s. My parents dutifully planted it in the front, giving it no more care over the years than raking up all the seed pods it used to drop. It has been the witness to a family's history over several decades, as it grew from a stick to a beautiful specimen. It now takes up half of the front yard and gracefully shades the still-present 1950’s- built house while it waves at other trees planted in the neighborhood from the same decade-old Arbor Day celebration.