The Red Flannel Rag

oak split bottoms, were made with walnut. My Grandma Molly’s pie safe was made with

softer poplar wood combined with walnut.

Maple trees provided wood for furniture; and one variety, the sugar maple,

provided sap for syrup. The most important and enduring contribution of the maples

was the variety of foliage colors in the fall. The oranges, yellows, and reds blended

ascetically with the maroon red oak leaves, green pines boughs, and yellow poplar leaves

as each October rolled around.

Let’s not forget the lowly pine. These trees provided many products including

pine knots. Pine knots were split into slivers of rich, oily kindling to start fires quickly

on cold winter mornings. Early in my life, Mom gave me, and my brother, Larry, the job

of using the axe to split pine knots and keep her kindling box filled. I liked this job

because the kindling box sat by the kitchen stove and as the hard, oily slivers were

warmed; a slight aroma of pine filled the house.

Large pine trees were harvested for two reasons. The outer layers of the trees

made good “slab” wood for quick fires because it was softer. The inner layers or the

“heart” pine was a much harder wood and was used for flooring in the homes, for doors

and trim wood, and for furniture, and I will never forget the sweet whispering music

made by the breezes blowing through a white pine tree.

Pine trees provided the best hiding places when the children played in the woods

and many out of season hunters escaped the game warden by ducking under the

protective boughs of a white pine tree. Pine tree boughs saved me once when I was

hunting for squirrels out of season. I was having a good day. I had six squirrels hanging

on my belt. I had sh ot each one in the head with Dad’s .22 caliber single -shot rifle, so

the meat wasn’t damaged.

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