I Almost Failed

Let me introduce myself. I am a specimen tree, a Long Needle White Pine. I was placed here almost 85 years ago. Let me tell you my story and now I protected my people and property against wind and sun, and how I almost failed one particularly windy night.

I was placed here along a side road on a one acre property as a young Christmas tree in Tacoma Washington. When I was first place here, I was all alone on the property, except for Grandpa. He was located along another road on the property. Not so far away that he couldn't talk to me. Except, I didn't speak his language, and he didn't speak Long Needle White Pine. It took me short while to speak his language.

I remember being decorated with lights and ornaments, being enjoyed by my new people. After Christmas, the decorations and lights were removed. That made me happy. The lights felt weird and the ornaments tickled.

Over the next few years, other pine and cedar trees joined me along the side road forming a beautiful and varied tapestry of pine needle textures. It was so nice to have other trees to talk to. I was the oldest in this row.

Along another row of trees was Grandpa, a Western Red Cedar. He was already about 30 years old when I arrived. I found out, despite his age, he was really nice. It took me a while to learn Western Red Cedar language. He was so wise and helpful to each of us newer trees. Since they were younger trees than me, they learned the language quickly. Grandpa helped us to adjust and to learn our duties. Our main jobs were to protect our property and people from wind and sun.

Speaking of people, our people loved us. They would come out of the house to admire us. We each stood more proud when they visited us. We resolved to do whatever we could to protect them.

During the fall season when other trees dropped their leaves to sleep, we stayed awake, always vigilant. While the other trees slept, we resolved to protect them too. In the spring, when it was time to wake up, they would ask us how the winter went. We told them about how wonderful we were.

In the Pacific Northwest Tacoma area, we had mild winds, usually 10 to 15 mph. We enjoyed waving our branches in the same manner as people clapping their hands. We made such a beautiful sight, each of us waving our branches differently, like a dance.

Our people would bundle up and sit or stand to watch our dances. Visitors enjoyed our dances as much as we did. This was a grand time.

Many years passed and we grew straight and strong. Our people moved out of the house and our new people moved in. We were worried, would they love us as much as the other people?

Grandpa was also worried. He was much taller. He had seen people move out of the house down the road and the new people cut down the trees. He was always sad to see our neighborhood trees gone.

Shortly after the new people moved in, loggers came and cut all of our tops off at 25 feet. This hurt, but we grew again. This time we each had more heads than before. Not much fun.

These people then moved out and new people came in. We were worried. Would they love us as much as the first people in the house? We found out the answer. They loved us so much more.

During the fall and spring, they put down feeder tree stakes, and aged horse manure. We ate like kings and queens. We again started growing strong. The only difference, some of us had more than one head. I remember our people calling the multiple heads "widow makers". We would never hurt our people, they loved us. Again, we resolved to protect the property and people.

Our new people even gave us name tags, they loved us so much. Mine was Andrew Jackson, my neighbor was Abraham Lincoln, and Grandpa was George Washington. This made us so proud, we loved our people.

As we matured, we developed beautiful pine cones that our people would gather by the sacksful. Every one of the other people who came to pick up pine cones admired us. Our life was angelic.

Then, one day, machines showed up on the side road. At our feet, they dug a trench that exposed our roots to air. They put in pipes then covered the trench. We never felt right after that. Even though our people fed us and gave us extra water, we seemed to be sickly. It became much harder to protect our people from the wind and sun.

One year, the winter winds were bitter, which made it more difficult for me to protect my people. I could feel I was not as strong, since I had 5 heads to watch for on a single trunk. The wind would catch all the heads and sway my main trunk.

Just a few years ago, I turned 85 years old, when hurricane strength winds hit Tacoma. I did my best to keep upright. I swayed as I normally would, but an extra strong wind gust came too fast for me to recover.

I tried to keep all the heads upright, swaying and twisting, but one started to crack. I stilled tried to hold on, riding the wind, when the unthinkable happened. One head closest to the house started to fall. I twisted to keep the head from falling on the house. My twisting worked, the head fell close to the house and didn't land on any cars. It landed perfectly in the middle of the yard.

My people came running out of the house. They were shocked. Instead of getting mad at me, like I expected, my people came to my trunk, hugging me, caressing me and saying thank you for protecting us.

That is the night I almost failed.