Friday, November 07, 2008

R.I.P., Dear Apple Tree

This morning I pulled the ye old wagon out of the garage and lo and behold, there was a barren spot at the edge of the driveway. I could see even more of our road than usual (ha, ha, I know, I know, how close we are to the road!)... what was it, exactly, that was different?? I could see more sky, I could see down the lane... wait, I thought to myself... where's the TREE??? We used to have a good sized apple tree right at the edge of our parking area, adjacent to the street we live on. It was a neat Craggy tree that took up quite a bit of space and would indeed produce quite a few apples in season. I stopped the car, got out and walked over to where the tree had stood just yesterday. What did I find? Wood shavings. A stump. A few large cut pieces of apple tree trunk. How random is that??? I thought to myself-- "Who the hell cut down our tree?" There was no note, nothing in our mailbox. I looked down the street to see if there was a tree trimming truck (sometimes the power company comes and trims the tree limbs-- but there was nothing. In fact, there was no other evidence that any of the other surrounding trees had been trimmed, let alone entirely cut down to their stumps!) What do you do when a tree is mysteriously cut down? Call the police! (Non-emergency number, of course...) The local PD put me in touch with the Department of Public Works. I described the situation and gave them my address. I was then told that at about 5am this morning they got a call about a downed tree on our street. Turns out the downed tree was our apple tree. Now mind you, it had been raining and a bit windy.... but it is unclear just how much of the tree came down. Based on the appearance of the cut pieces the tree trunk looked extremely healthy. Mind you, also, that we heard nothing. Not even a peep during the night (not the tree falling nor the chain saws!)

I have to say-- I understand if the tree fell, obviously the township had to take away the limb in the street-- but I can't believe they cut down our entire tree to a stump and they didn't even leave a note! Not a knock on the door, nothing! Now we have this big gap where the tree used to be. I guess I should just be thankful that the damn thing didn't fall on the X5 which was parked outside very near the tree, but still... I miss our tree! It's passing feels so abrupt!

2 comments:

Sue said...

You should be expecting a bill in the mail from the Public Works department for tree removal....Just like the fee when you set off the alarm..Tell the husband your mother was no where's near the tree last night I was home asleep in Georgia.....

5280 Mommy... said...

Two questions...First, what kind of public works department actually responds to a call on the same day as it's received (not to mention before the crack of dawn on said day!) I think we're all interested in Princeton's incentives for its township employees. Second, who is the Gladys Kravitz in your neighborhood who is up at 5am and immediately calls public works about YOUR tree??