Arts & Culture

This tree witnessed many years of schoolkids, including my mother, enjoying innocent, happy times: boys and girls playing baseball, kids chasing each other, children laughing. 

Over the years I have probably walked by this tree numerous times without paying it much notice, but on this day there was something different—it was as if we were connected on the same frequency with no distractions.

The tree that appeared in the 1955 feature film ‘Oklahoma!’ is still a landmark in Elgin, 70 years later.

One day in 2021 I came across the biggest, most magnificent Emory oak I have ever seen. I visit this tree every year and the awe has yet to fade.