
{"id":21143,"date":"2011-09-29T12:58:34","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T16:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=21143"},"modified":"2011-09-29T12:58:34","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T16:58:34","slug":"eulogy-for-a-very-old-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/09\/29\/eulogy-for-a-very-old-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"Eulogy for a very old friend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A Thousand Words<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>By Jock Lauterer<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/09\/29\/eulogy-for-a-very-old-friend\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/1KWords092911.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21144\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/1KWords092911.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/1KWords092911-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/1KWords092911-84x113.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/1KWords092911-75x100.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nTo a townie like me, every single tree in Polk and McCorkle Place is like a dear playmate with whom I have grown old. So this summer when I saw the bare branches on my favorite post oak (Quercus stellata) between the Old and New West buildings, I began grieving in advance. And the way a photographer grieves is by making pictures; I shot its noble profile \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I laid on my back at its massive base looking straight up into its gnarly branches \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I photographed it lovingly with the knowledge that its days were numbered and that I alone must document its last autumn. Even as prepared as I was, the actual sight of the tree lying prone on the campus grass drew from me a sharp gasp. To his credit, university arborist Tom Bythell, who oversees the care and maintenance of the campus trees, was kind enough to respond promptly to my query. Bythell explained via email, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We can attribute the decline to a combination of factors that have put this tree under stress over the course of many years,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d including \u00e2\u20ac\u0153infestations of Ambrosia beetles and phytophthora root rot.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And he adds, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We did several Borer treatments this past spring [which] were unsuccessful.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bythell estimates the post oak, sadly rotten and hollow at its core, was 160 to 180 years old, which means it might have been planted around the time New West was completed in 1861, at the dawn of the Civil War. And if there is a silver lining to this story, it is this: The huge trunk has been taken to the N.C. Botanical Garden, where I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m told it will be fashioned into a bench. When it is finished, I will make a pilgrimage to visit my old friend, Quercus stallata, useful as ever in another life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A THOUSAND WORDS<\/strong><br \/>\nDo you have an important old photo that you value? Email your photo to jock@email.unc.edu and include the story behind the picture. Because every picture tells a story. And its worth? A thousand words.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/sections\/a-thousand-words\/\">More &#8220;A Thousand Words&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To a townie like me, every single tree in Polk and McCorkle Place is like a dear playmate with whom I have grown old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":21144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[422],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-thousand-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21145,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21143\/revisions\/21145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}