The Cottonwood Tree

I have a love for trees. I think it become a love affair when I was a child growing up in the city of East Chicago, Indiana on the Harbor side. I lived behind my father's shoe repair shop in a small four room plus bath apartment. Our neighbors lived in the upstairs apartment over our shop and apartment. The backdoor of our apartment opened into a back hallway
and the neighbors' backdoor also opened into the same hallway. They had to come down the steps to exit the building from the main floor's back door. We shared the same exit door from the apartment building. Outside our building's back door about five feet away a young cottonwood tree grew. I am sure no one planted it. A seed must have settled there and grew.. Next to our apartment building (sometimes called "a flat" because this two story building had a flat roof)were two vacant lots..The cottonwood tree grew in the vacant lot right next to us but not on our property. The tree was close enough to shade our backdoor. As a child I played under the tree in the summer, swang with my arms on the lower branch and climbed the tree as high as I could. It was the only tree on three large lots, our lot and the 2 vacant lots. In the spring the tree shed its seeds in what appeared to be cotton that drifted to the ground. The tree sprouted with green leafs in the spring and summer which turned yellow in the fall and dropped to the ground before winter. When I was older the vacant lot next to us was sold. The owner did a terrible thing he had the cottonwood tree cut down. I was one sad girl who cried when I heard the bad news. My mother was sad too. This tree and I had grown tall together and shared happy lives. This was the beginning of the love that I have for trees.