My grandparents moved from Indiana to Auburndale, Florida, during the summer of 1915. He became one of the earliest doctors in town, if not the first. This Christmas tree was a Short-Leaf Pine, cut in the pine woods outside of town. We did the same when I was a child, I remember. What I thought absolutely delightful about this photo was that they have hung a new kind of decoration on the tree; a piece of Spanish Moss, which can be seen hanging off the right side of the tree..
This moss only grows south of a certain area (roughly equivalent to the Mason-Dixon Line that separated the US Northern states from the Confederacy in the Civil War)….they would never have seen it before, and must have admired its delicate structure.
We’re so used to it these days that we’d never think of using it that way. Though not a parasite, it can break branches of smaller trees like Crape Myrtle, if it gets too dense and then gets weighed down by rain. Tree companies are often hired to remove Spanish Moss from oaks when they prune the branches. I like being able to look at it a different way!
Follow much of their story in The Girl Who Talked Too Much!
Ann Dickinson Sargent 