My Childhood: Planting Seeds

One day, I watched Little Mountain burn. This was not unusual, as the mountain burned every year. Generally, these were just small brush fires, quickly put out.

That year, however, the entire mountain was on fire. It was spectacular! The fire started on one side of the mountain, and continued to the other. It lasted all day, and well into the night. There was something oddly fascinating about watching a mountain burn, especially at night.

The firemen had the fire out by the next day. The mountain looked strangely vacant and dark for many months after that.

I was studying ecology at the time, and realized that the lack of plant life on the hill would cause lots of erosion. I decided this was a bad thing, but I didn’t know what to do about it. So I went back to my reading.

A few months later, I had it figured out. I would plant some seeds on the mountain. Perhaps the seeds would sprout and become trees, and prevent the water from washing the topsoil away.

I gathered up several hundred seeds of maple trees. These seeds came my own front yard … there were enough of them to fill two large trash bags.

The seeds of a maple tree are very interesting. Each seed is on one side of a brown leaf, shaped much like a helicopter blade. When the seed falls off the tree, the blade causes it to rotate, blowing with the wind for some distance. This allows the tree to spread it’s children far and wide.

My dad and I climbed up the flanks of Little Mountain on a hot summer day, throwing seeds from our large garbage bag. We must have made quite a sight … reaching into our trash bags and scattering hundreds of seeds around us. We managed to scatter the seeds over a large area, and then went home.

A few days later, dad brought home a certificate. He said the President Of The United States had heard about my efforts, and had rewarded me with a certificate. I treasured that for many years, and still proudly keep the copy with my other important documents.

A reduced copy of the certificate that my dad presented to me is included below.