Mrs. Traphagan's tree

Mrs. Traphagan's tree, today. (Bruce Crosby/McCook Gazette)

In the United States some of the most popular tours for Travel Companies are the New England "Fall Foliage" Tours. We have taken a tour of New England in the fall, and to be sure it is a spectacular show.

They have so many hard wood trees in the northeast, and that blaze of reds and orange is a sight to behold. Our trees in the Midwest, and Mountain States, with all the Aspen, the fall foliage is mainly shades of yellow, which is also beautiful, if not quite so spectacular. That being the case, I think we are more appreciative of the occasional red maple in our midst. Anyway, that is what I tell myself in the fall when Mrs. Traphagan's tree shines.

Mrs. Nell Traphagan was a beloved first grade teacher, who taught for many years at the old East Ward grade school on East Fifth Street. She had a knack for making each of her pupils feel that he or she was Mrs. Traphagan's favorite (sometimes to the resentment of Mrs. Traphagan's own children).

She was not just kind, she also had the veteran teacher's skill of turning an everyday event into a teaching experience, whether it was in the classroom, on the playground, or something her pupils witnessed at home or in McCook. For years Mrs. Traphagan's first graders could look forward to an annual autumn walk from East Fifth Street to East First Street to see "the tree."

No matter that Mrs. Traphagan never did claim ownership of "the tree", nor she even live at the East First location, her children (students) always referred to that red maple as Mrs. Traphagan's tree, including all of us who lived in the 400 block of East 1st St. Our own kids, who each in his/her turn made that trip with Mrs. Traphagan, were so proud that their whole class was coming to our neighborhood to view "the tree" in all its glory.

It was fun to see that little army trudging down the street, each holding the hand of his/her travel buddy, talking with great animation about what they would be seeing, or had seen on the trip.

Our own kids, sometime soon after their trip to see "the tree" were sure to explain, to their mother or me -- or both, the science that Mrs. Traphagan had taught them. Those conversations went something like this: "You know, dad, the leaves on Mrs. Traphagan's tree turn that red color in the fall. Did you know that the red color was in the leaves all summer, but we couldn't see it because it was covered up with green stuff, "color-phil" (chlorophyll). (one of our kids called it chloroform).

The tree takes the summer sunlight, and carbon dioxide, and water and uses "photo stuff" (photosynthesis) to make sugar for food for the tree. Some maple trees, like those in the "England States" (New England) make lots of sugar, and people can get maple syrup for pancakes from those trees, but ours are red maples, and they just make enough to get a nice red color, and they get enough food to take them through the winter. In the fall when it starts to get cold, the leaves stop making food, and all that sugar and "color phil") chlorophyll) goes into the tree's roots and it feeds the tree all winter." My reaction was "Wow, how do you know all that?" "Cuz, Mrs. Traphagan said so." Enough said.

But Mrs. Traphagan's teaching didn't stop with the science of photosynthesis. She was able to use the leaves from that tree in her art class as well. Each of the kids would collect a leaf (or two or six), to take back to school to be pressed in a book. But before the leaf went into a book, the students used that leaf as a pattern for their own leaf picture on paper, which they colored in the colors they had seen on the real leaf. These pictures then were pinned to the wall above the black boards, a colorful fall display for their room, and proudly displayed for the parents when they came for their teacher's conference. Just recently we came across one of these leaves still pressed in the book by one of our kids years ago. It was a bit worse for wear by the years, but it did bring back pleasant memories of those years.

For a number of years Lydia Webber and her two sisters, widows all, lived in the house at 407 E. First, where "the tree" graced their front yard. Those ladies looked forward to the visits by Mrs. Traphagan's students, and happily assisted their little visitors in getting just the right leaf for their collections -- a big one, with just the right coloring, in perfect condition. Over several years they got so they, too, could answer the kids' questions about the way the photosynthesis worked, and talked with real authority on the subject.

The other day I had occasion to take a drive down East 1st Street. "The tree," Mrs. Traphagan's tree, is still there, and thriving. I parked across the street to gaze for a moment at "the tree," now in its annual blaze of glory. As luck would have it, a couple of grade school kids were walking down that street at the time. When they came to that spot in the block they stopped, looking up in awe at that giant red headed tree. Then, as kids have done for so many years, they happily started picking up leaves -- no doubt to start their own collections.

Mrs. Traphagan is gone now. Our kids are grown, with kids of their own. We no longer live on 4th Street. East Ward School is still there, but lives on as a retirement community -- no kids. So many changes. So many memories. It is somehow reassuring to me that Mrs. Traphagan's Tree is still there, ablaze in the sunlight, still "showing off" for passers-by.

If you get a chance, take that little trip down East First Street to see "The Tree" in the 400 block. You'll be glad you did -- a little bit of Vermont in McCook.

The maple leaf is also the National Symbol of Canada.