Little tree has bright future

I watched nursery workers plant an oak tree in front of the newspaper office Thursday. I had hoped it would go directly in front of my office window but it sits slightly to the south, easy to see when I'm sitting at my desk but out of sight when I'm front of my computer.

I often watched robins and other birds that loved to eat berries and chat in the old tree that grew for years right outside my window.

But I welcomed the new oak tree planted last week and expect it has a bright future. The tree isn't the largest planted along the four blocks of Main Street undergoing work as part of Tell City's streetscape project, but like the others, the new tree is already sprouting green leaves.

Odds are the oak will survive my tenure at the newspaper and will be around for decades to come. Like most people, I like of trees, not in some sort of radical way, but in a friendly, respectful fashion. I like to think the trees around my house and others I pass by regularly as friends. A skewed maple tree in my yard should have had an ax taken to it a few years ago after a storm tore off about half of its branches. The remaining main trunk is still healthy but there's no symmetry to the old tree at all. I haven't had the heart to cut it down.

Spring is tree-planting time and while we can do lots of things that will outlive us, planting a tree is certainly one way of having an impact years into the future.

The new tree in front of The News was planted on the eve of Arbor Day and perhaps that will bode well for its future.

Time Capsule

A story in Thursday's News will announce plans for a sesquicentennial time capsule being sponsored by this newspaper and Crawford Family Memorials. We plan to bury a concrete vault holding all kinds of items from Tell City at the conclusion of the Aug. 2-9 sesquicentennial. Thursday's story will have the details, but we'll be asking students to write stories about their hometown. We'll print some of the letters and file away copies of all in the capsule. We'll also be gathering memories from lots of other Tell Citians.

Those of us who won't be around when the capsule is opened in 50 years, when the city celebrates its bicentennial, may want to write letters to their children and grandchildren. Also going into the capsule will be copies of The News, some of the commemorative items being sold for the celebration and photographs. I'm still trying to ascertain if compact discs well sealed to keep out air will survive and since I have kept just about every photograph I've taken for The News and have burned them onto CDs, I'd like to include copies of those.

Space, of course, will be limited, but if you have ideas of what you think Tell Citians should discover in 2058, let me know by telephone or by e-mail at editor@perrycountynews.com. A final burial location hasn't been determined, but my first choice would be City Hall Park.