Humor

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THE OAK TREE

All small communities in Mississippi seem to have a legacy that is passed down from generation to generation. The small hamlet of Caesar, MS is no exception. The old folks of the community liked to set around grandpa Bobs General Mercantile and talk about the days when the Indians would dance around an oak tree that had once been the center of the community.

The oak tree was still there when I was a youngster and provided many days of pleasure for the local youths. Legend has it that the Oak Tree was the Indian's place of worship. The Indians would build fires around the old tree and dance all night until sunrise. These dances were no doubt part of their worship services.

The School bus pickup stop for students going to Carriere High School was at the crossroads across the road from the Union Baptist Church cemetery. The old Oak tree stood at the crossroads.

The tree was probably no more than a sapling at the time the Indians had their pow wows, war dances, and worship services beneath its branches but had grown quite large by the time I came along. It was now hollow, and in my imagination as a young boy, I could see the Indians dancing around this tree, whooping and hollering, painted with war paint, building their courage for war with the white man and storing their weapons inside the tree for safe keeping. I spent half my pre-teen years digging around inside the tree looking for arrowheads, stone knives, and any other artifact the Indians may have left there. All I ever found was lizards and spiders. By the time I came along it was a large tree, 5-foot or larger in diameter, and had been there for as long as anyone in the community could remember.

I burned the tree down!! It was not blown down by a hurricane as is commonly believed in the Caesar community nor did the county supervisors remove it as others attested too. Now that I've said it I can rest in peace after nearly 50 years, the statue of limitations being over for a crime such as this. I leave the other two culprits involved in this incident to clear their own conscience.

The story goes like this--On a cold and dreary morning, Tater Bug, a boyhood friend of mine, his sister, and I were waiting at the tree for the old yellow school bus to arrive. Tater got the idea that we should build a fire out of leaves at the base of the tree to keep warm until the bus arrived. The reason I say it was Taters idea is because he attracted trouble like hog slop attracts flies. His sister, on the other hand, avoided trouble like the plague.

The idea of starting a fire sounded all right to me because Tater and I thought alike--attracting trouble and all, that is. We built the fire and enjoyed the warmth thereof until we heard the school bus come rumbling and rattling up the corduroy bump gravel hill from Playground branch. As the bus came over the top of the hill, we panicked. Not having been taught the perils of leaving smoldering leaves, and never having heard of Smokey the Bear or fire prevention week, the idea never occurred to us that the leaves could catch on fire again after we had semi-stomped the fire out. We thought wrong.

That afternoon as the bus rounded the curve approaching our bus stop at the old tree, the sight that met our eyes made my hair stand on ends. The old Oak Tree had caught fire, burned down, and had fallen across the road, the power line, and onto the fence around the graveyard near Grandpa Jesse's and Grandma Hester's grave sites. We quietly exited the bus and very quickly made our way home. We never said anything about this to anyone and were very much relieved when no one else mentioned it. I suspect some of the folks wanted the tree removed but never had the courage to make such a suggestion to the Board of Supervisors, the tree having historical significance. Maybe we did a public service and just never got the credit for it. We'll never know since most of the folks that would remember this old tree are dead and buried in the old graveyard where the tree fell--that is except Tater Bug, his sister, and I.

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