As I was scanning some old medium format transparencies a few days ago, I found one I had forgotten about. Here's the story.
In November, 1985 we bought 30 acres of land in northwest Georgia's McLemore Cove. It was two years before we could actually move to the property, but in the meantime we moved our camper to the farm and spent many weekends there. About a hundred feet in front of the old house on the property was a very large old maple, probably three feet in diameter.
Memorial Day weekend in 1986, our son Don invited some friends from his high school ROTC unit to come out and camp. When it got dark, we built a campfire near the old maple and sat around it roasting hotdogs and marshmallows. Suddenly, a very strong wind came from the west and began blowing embers toward the old house. As we jumped up to put out the fire, there was a loud cracking sound and a massive limb (actually half the trunk) broke off and fell toward us. Everyone scattered. I guess I was too slow, or maybe I ran the wrong direction, because the limb fell all around me and knocked me down. I had a couple of broken ribs, but, looking at the limb as it lay on the ground, it is an absolute miracle I wasn't killed. It was approximately two feet in diameter at its base.
That was the first tree that tried to kill me. The second was in April, 2020. You can read about it here.
A few months later the rest of the tree blew over, leaving a massive hole in the ground. We had a wood-burning stove in the den at our house near Chattanooga, so I cut that sucker up with a chainsaw, split it, and hauled it home in my little Ford pickup. It kept us warm for the better part of a year.
Photos: The picture at the top is an extreme crop from a 2-1/4 x 2-3/4 Kodak Ektachrome transparency. The bottom photo is a 2-1/4 x 2-3/4 Kodachrome in the rare 120 size, which was only made for a short time. Both pictures were made with a Pentax 6x7 camera with the Takumar 105mm f2.4 lens.
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Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
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