Up a Tree

Trees have figured prominently in my life.

This is the earliest picture of me taken by one. I'm standing in front of a small genip tree, circa 1956 Cruz Bay, St. John. Even though I’m wearing a little dress, the sash isn't tied and I am barefoot. It's a portent of things to come

The genip, (with a hard g) bears small round fruit between the size of a nickel and a quarter. It grows in bunches something like grapes. The fruit is covered by a leathery green skin which surrounds pinkish flesh. The pinkish flesh surrounds a large seed. The fruit is tart/sweet and ripens right around the time school begins and was always a favorite among the kids. Like spitting watermelon seeds, there were contests to see who could spit their genip skins the farthest.

It's faded, but I'm there, like a chameleon. This picture, taken around 1958, shows me in my favorite genip tree that grew by the house we lived in at Caneel Bay. 

The way my left hand is casually resting on the trunk of the tree, it looks like I’m standing in a doorway or next to a pillar.

I wasn't using the trunk to support myself, or to keep my balance on the branch. I simply had my hand on it like someone resting a hand on a doorjamb. I was totally unafraid of heights. (Not so any more.)

I loved that tree. I knew exactly where my hands and feet had to go to get me to my favorite branch.

My mother couldn't keep me out it, or any other climbable tree. She used to tell me, kidding of course, "You fall out of that tree and break your arm, I'll break the other one."

I never fell out of a tree and never broke bone. Well, I did break a small wrist bone, but I was in my early 30s and it happened roller skating.


Here I am at about 11 or 12 trying to climb a coconut palm. I was never successful getting more than a few feet up. There is a way to shimmy up them, but the technique eluded me.

I was a senior in high school when this picture was taken for the yearbook. The tree is a mango. I was wearing a ratty pair of jeans and an old blue denim shirt. I was NOT a prom queen/cheerleader type of girl. The Hat has a story all it's own which I blogged about HERE.

And it doesn't end there. My sweetie and I were married under a cedar elm.

We visited it on our 20th anniversary. All of us were still alive and well.

Were you a tree climber? Do you have a special tree memory? Did you ever have a tree house? Ever fallout of a tree?

Senior High Picture Challenge

Rena and some other bloggers had put out the challenge to post your senior high picture. I had to scan this out of my 1970 yearbook, that's why it looks so grainy. What you can't see is the acne...which I had pretty bad. (Rhyming not intended.)Those credits next to your name? Mine read:

Girl's Sports I: I was on the winning football team in 9th grade. Granted we only played one game against one school but we won it hands down. The "league" was disbanded because the mother's of the girls from the other participating school decided it was too rough a sport for their girls to be playing.

Miss A. S. P. S 2nd Runner Up I: That stands for All Saints Parish School. Dad always thought it was appropriate that we were called asps. I played my guitar and sang a song. Can't for the life of me remember which one or what possessed me to compete against the popular girls. I remember being terrified. I was surprised to make 2nd Runner Up, but then...there were like only four girls going for the title!

Yearbook III, Copy Editor IV: Which I wrote about recently in A Writer's Journey.

Mixed Chorus II: I should have sung every year in the choir but I didn't.

Student Council II, IV: In my senior year the Student Council was responsible for changing uniform requirements, loosing them up a bit; like being able to wear sneakers or something other than loafers or tie shoes (we were never ever allowed to wear sandals) and no socks. And girls were given the option of wearing solid forest green or green plaid skirts. Unfortunately for us senior girls plaid skirts didn't become an option until the following year.

To this day I have never worn a forest green skirt. That said, I think uniforms would solve a lot of problems in public schools. All the kids in all the public schools in the islands wear uniforms. Each school has its own color. A person can immediately tell where a kid goes to school by the uniform he or she is wearing. Also a uniform eliminates the problem of kids competing for status through their clothes. Rich and poor are wearing the same thing which starts everyone out on a more level playing field. No designer labels, no obvious second-hand/thrift shop clothes. Also, it's cheaper for parents. Three or four pairs of pants/skirts, five or six shirts/blouses and you're set for the school year. Makes sense to me.


PS: The pearls are mine. They are real cultured pears. I won them them in the 1966 Annual Fourth of July Fishing Tournament for "best girl angler." I caught an 11 1/2 pound barracuda. Got my picture in the paper and everything.