The Shoe Tree
Aug. 29th, 2003 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishThere's a tree in Huntington Beach's Central Park that I've wanted to photograph for months. It was a victim of the Eucalyptus lurp insect invasion a couple of years ago, and was completely dead, yet it still retained an attractive vase-like form. Over the past year or so, people began throwing pairs of shoes with the laces tied together into the branches. Recently it was so festooned with footwear it looked some sort of weird Christmas Tree that Jack Skellington and a Foot Locker employee might have dreamed up.
I always wanted to stop, but I was always on my way somewhere urgent, it seemed, and I didn't have time, or I would be late, or the sunlight was at the wrong angle. Last night, my husband picked my up from work, and as we were driving south on Goldenwest, I impatiently waited for him to finish telling a story, so I could tell him to pull over when we passed the park. As we drove by, I glanced over to where the tree was.
Was.
It was completely gone. All that remained were a couple of traffic cones in the depression where its trunk had been.
I won't mourn too much, as it was already dead, and a non-native eucalyptus besides, but damn! I should have known the powers that be in the city of Huntington Beach would not leave a potentially dangerous dead tree standing for long. I am kicking myself that I didn't stop to photograph it when I had the chance.
I always wanted to stop, but I was always on my way somewhere urgent, it seemed, and I didn't have time, or I would be late, or the sunlight was at the wrong angle. Last night, my husband picked my up from work, and as we were driving south on Goldenwest, I impatiently waited for him to finish telling a story, so I could tell him to pull over when we passed the park. As we drove by, I glanced over to where the tree was.
Was.
It was completely gone. All that remained were a couple of traffic cones in the depression where its trunk had been.
I won't mourn too much, as it was already dead, and a non-native eucalyptus besides, but damn! I should have known the powers that be in the city of Huntington Beach would not leave a potentially dangerous dead tree standing for long. I am kicking myself that I didn't stop to photograph it when I had the chance.
