Carving in a Tree

[Tom Bender]

It's been a long time since I saw a heart carved in a tree, or carving on public benches etc. Can't say I miss it but times have changed. People haven't gotten better, they have become distracted. Television was probably the development that redirected the carvers.

[Frederick Skelly]

Hi Tom,
I still see a lot of benches with names carved around here. Maybe less on trees though, probably because they just spray paint the heart on a wall. (sigh.)
Fred

[John K Jordan]

It's been a long time since I saw a heart carved in a tree, or carving on public benches etc. Can't say I miss it but times have changed. People haven't gotten better, they have become distracted. Television was probably the development that redirected the carvers.

Hey, if someone's going to carve on a tree, they should do it right. :) When I was a kid we lived on a farm and drove a long lane for a long time before my sister noticed a carving high in a big tree. Someone had carved a head with full Am. Indian ceremonial headdress. It was probably 15' off the ground, right above a big branch they probably sat on while carving.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I guess not enough kids have read Where the Red Fern Grows anymore to learn about Ann and Dan carved in a tree.

[Mel Fulks]

I guess not enough kids have read Where the Red Fern Grows anymore to learn about Ann and Dan carved in a tree.
I read it to my Son years ago. Will never forget the passage where a dog is sliding into a river. It's heavilly peppered with stuff like "he slid a bit more". Goes on for many pages. Told my boy the dog must have been as long as a freight train.

[Bob Glenn]

Not on a tree, but a bar. I bought a tavern a long time ago and remodeled it. I built a new bar with the bar top made of reclaimed tongue and groove 2 x 6's and it was beautiful. After a particularly busy night, I noticed someone had carved their initials in the bar top. I was fit to be tied! After a few more days, another set of initials appeared. Then I had an idea and began advertising "come on in and carve your initials in the bar". Business boomed! Customers would spend hours trying to out do one another, all the while drinking my beer. Probably not the safest thing by today's standards, but it was fun back then.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I recently visited a place I played at 55 years ago. Back then, there was an old abandoned house. The last owners were said to be some kind of country faith healers. The trees out behind the place were filled with strange symbols, crosses and other off markings back then. There is now just a hole in the ground where the cellar had been and many of the trees were gone. The fellow at the new house next door came over and asked if he could help me. I explained what I was back in the area for just a day and was trying to get pictures of where ancestors had lived and where I hung out as a boy. Asked him about the trees with all the odd carvings. He said most were knocked down by hurricanes and a few just seemed to die off of old age. He told me that two tree trunks were cut and hauled to a museum somewhere. There was only one tree left with any markings. I took a picture of the place, thanked him and moved along down the road a mile to where my great grandfather had lived. Knocked on the door and asked permission to take a few pictures. Oh sure the owner said Henry up the road, said you would be by. This gent told me that Henry and he were descendants of the folks who had lived in the abandoned house. He and henry were two young to remember the house, so I drew a rough sketch of it for them as I remembered it. We talked a little about the markings. He said if some one was ill, they would place the bad spirit causing the trouble into the tree with a prayer and then carve a cross on the tree to keep the spirit trapped in it. Some of the symbols were supposed to put curses on people or things.

[Mel Fulks]

Perry, that is wild and interesting stuff! I hope you have photos, even if we don't get to see them.