Don't think I have ever been so sad to see a tree come down.

Drove through my old neighborhood this morning and saw the large Oak tree that was in my neighbor's yard had just been cut down. I knew it was coming though. It had been fading for the last 5-6 years. Seeing chunks of it on the ground, it had large hollow or rotten spots in several parts.

The story of the tree.... My neighbor was an old salt who was a retired US Navy Pilot who flew PBYs, SBD Dauntlesses and later became the Navy's 61st Helicopter Pilot. The guy was also an inventor who made bicycles where BOTH wheels turned. He also owned a Brass Polishing business out of his garage (His Son now runs it in another location. ANYWAY, he lived on a large corner lot 3 houses from where I grew up. On that lot, Mr Finn had a Zip line that ran from about 15 feet up the now cut down Oak tree, down and across his yard to another tree about 40-50 yards. The line was a very heavy duty clothes line cable. You would sit in a STEEL bicycle rim attached to pulleys that ran on the cable. The rim had a rope attached that other people could pull to sling you up to the old Oak tree. Mr Finn put that Zip Line up in 1965. Two years before I was born. What SUCKS is, he took it down when I was only 5, around 1972. I had JUST gotten big enough to ride it when it came down so I only had about a dozen rides. Over the years, Mr Finn would let us kids play in his yard. I would always look up that Oak tree and see the brackets still left where the cable was tied off. Just a month ago, you could STILL see one of the last mounts on that old tree. Mr Finn passed away in April 1998. His Funeral was an old neighborhood reunion. EVERYONE was there (Mr Finn would have loved it) He was SO good to us kids. The years since, I have OFTEN driven by and just looked at that big yard and see all the ghosts. My heart sank when I saw the old Oak tree starting to die several years ago. I knew today would come. To be honest, I'd rather see the tree gone than it slowly fading away. Sorry about the long winded, probably BORING memory lane thing. I just had to get it out after seeing a HUUUUGE part of my childhood gone.