Memories of a hickory tree

Twenty some odd years ago, Edward and I dug up a hickory seedling on his family’s farm. The foot tall seedling had a six-foot long tap root that fortunately took a turn and didn’t go straight down. We brought it home and heeled it in near the house. Although the literature says it takes about forty years for hickories to mature, this tree started bearing nuts early that made quite a racket when they landed on the metal porch roof right outside our bedroom. Although that tap root makes hickories unlikely to blow over, this tree did during a hurricane lean over and we had to remove it. I miss the beautiful yellow color of the fall leaves in the morning sunlight and the squirrels (and our kitty cats who stalked them) miss that tree as well.