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Dairy
Business
• \ Newton Bair
The Great Christmas Tree Hunt
Hickory Grove School was the
usual one-room brick structure,
situated at the cross roads of
Limekiln and Spanglers Mill
roads. Both roads were only
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200 BRIMMER AVENUE. NEW HOLLAND, PA
Phone 717-354-4321
Hours'Daily 7 AM to 5 PM, Saturday 7 AM to 12 Noon
packed "mud, bumpy and dusty
when dry, slimy and rutted in the
rain. Five or six families lived
along each of these radii of a two
mile circle with the schoolhouse in
the center. Our farm was exactly
one mile east, on Limekiln road.
Everybody walked to school,
except on a few memorable oc
casions.
One of those never-to-be
forgotten times was just before a
long ago Christmas, and this was
the day the bigger boys were to
find a tree for the school’s
Christmas program. It was im
perative that I didn’t miss that
day, for wasn’t I the one that knew
where to find a suitable tree? And
what better way to get excused
from classes with the teacher’s
blessing?
Just the day before, the road to
school was hopelessly blocked by
drifted snow, navigable only by
Pete and Henner, the farm mules
which Papa grudgingly allowed
me and my brother Danny to ride
that day. Even the mules had to
take to the fields occasionally,
when the narrow road cuts got too
deep with snow. Nobody minded
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 20,1986-A35
the trespassing for everyone did it
when the occasion demanded.
Sometimes the tracks remained
visible in the field long after the
snow was forgotten.
The teacher was Miss somebody,
(all my Grammer school teachers
except one was a ‘Miss’), who
seldom let the bigger boys out of
her sight except to do or get
something that she couldn’t.
She boarded at the Snyder farm
across the road from the
schoolhouse, so bad weather did
not bother her. Since the day was
crisp but cloudy after the snowfall,
she didn’t mind giving us the af
ternoon off to find a tree for the
Christmas program next week. It
was probably a relief to have us out
of sight for a while, and besides,
what mischief could we get into
anyway, with two feet of snow on
the ground and the Holiday coming
up?
The snow did slow us down
considerably, so we knew we were
in for a long afternoon. No use
hurrying, we would time ourselves
to get back just as school was
dismissed.
We headed straight (so we
thought) for the patch of Pines in
the woods behind the old Moser
farm. There should be some first
rate trees up there, for that’s
where the delegation of older boys
had gotten last year’s tree.
The trouble was, with two feet of
new fallen snow, many slightly
familiar landmarks were wiped
out. They became less and less
familiar as time passed, and
finally there was nothing but black
leafless trunks to be seen, and all
sense of direction was obliterated.
Our feet got colder by the
minute, and still no Pine trees.
Nobody had a watch, but we knew
it was getting late by the ominous
darkness creeping over the woods.
We were all a little scared,
although nobody admitted it even
to himself.
In desperation, someone thought
of climbing a scrubby birch tree to
have a better look. In a low thicket
several hundred yards in the
wrong direction, he spotted a grove
of sorry looking cedars, bent low to
the ground and hidden by snow.
With no pines in sight, a cedar
would have to do.
With the biggest, but not the best
cedar tree we could find balanced
between us, we struggled in the
general direction of the
schoolhouse, which seemed by this
time to be miles away.
Getting heavier with every step,
the tree was easier to manage by
dragging instead of lifting, so that
by the tune we reached the
schoolhouse, well after dark, the
tree was flat and bald on one side.
We would be in for a lot of
ridicule anyway, for the tree was a
sorry specimen to begin with. It
didn’t matter much, for we were
exhausted, discouraged, and a
little bit frightened because we
were all late for the evemng
chores.
Hickory Grove had a Christmas
tree, but that was the last of the
free-tree hunts ever allowed.
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573 Willow Rd.
Lancaster, PA 17601
(717) 299-2536
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330 Glenbrook Rd.
Leola, PA 17540
(717)656-6982
NISSLEY’S FEEDING
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RDl.Box 417
Willow Street, PA 17584
(717) 786-7654
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RD 2, Box 276
Myerstown, PA 17067
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608 E. Evergreen Rd.
Lebanon, PA 17042
(717) 274-5333
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Rt. 2, Box 176
Bridgewater, VA
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