Pop loved to take pictures. Mostly, he liked to take
picture of flowers and animals instead of people. I preferred pictures of
people because, many years later, it’s the pictures of people I loved that I treasure
rather than that trumpet vine growing up the fence post or those polar bears at
the Buffalo Zoo. I’m just sayin’…
But when Pop did take pictures of people, he liked to do
it in front of the huge oak tree in the front yard. I have no idea why except
he thought it was a good background. I believe every member of the family made
it to that tree to get their picture taken at some point. There was the occasional
picture taken in the orchard, but everyone got in a picture in front of that
old oak.
My maternal grandfather once told Pop he needed to trim
the limb from that oak that stretched out over the roof, but Pop refused
because, “That’s where the owls hang out.” He was very attached to that limb
and to the birds that “hung out” 0n it. A few days after Pop died back in 1981,
that limb fell. And some years after my oldest sister sold the house, the old
oak disappeared from the front yard. We had spent our lives living in that
house with that old oak and it made me sad at its loss.
Here are just few pictures Pop took in front of that
tree.
Sarah J. McNeal
Author of paranormal, time
travel and western romance
