A SUDDEN STOP

Back in the late-1970s I was on a site inspection for the City of the then vacant property astride Katherine Road where it then curved south to cross the railroad tracks into the Susana Knolls. On the outside of the curve was a very large blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) tree. Impaled in that tree was the hood ornament of a 1953 Ford - with new growth calyxed engulfing a portion of the ornament. I thought, about what a tragic accident must have occurred. Perhaps the accident had happened at night. Perhaps the driver had simply tried to take the corner too fast and had lost control. Perhaps alcohol had been involved. What was certain was that the tree had not yielded, while retaining the hood ornament as a trophy of that event.

Some years later, that tree was the first in Simi Valley, as far as we know, to succumb to the Eucalyptus longhorned borer, which had invaded southern California the year before from its home in Australia. The tree died and eventually was removed. Since then hundreds of blue gum trees have come to the same fate - none, however, with the hood ornament of a 1953 Ford impaled in it. The land itself has now been developed for homes. I will always remember that tree and its “trophy.”

                                                                                    Mike Kuhn

10-27-04