Dear Editor,
Do you know Shel Silverstein’s story, “The Giving Tree?” I know it well. In fact, so well, that it seems appropriate I should find such a treasure here on Dixie State’s campus. Yes, I’ve found my own version of a giving tree.
One day, after a particularly long haul in the NIB, I exited out the back doors. Climbing the stairs, I stepped left at their summit. Something yellow and very misplaced caught my eye. There, stuck in the notch of a tree, rested a spaghetti squash. I snatched the thing down and found, scrawled on its waxy flesh, the inscription, “FREE SPAGHETTI SQUASH. I grow it—can’t eat any more though. Enjoy!” Manna from heaven! I scored dinner!
Two days later, I pulled into the north parking lot of the same building, looked up, and wouldn’t you know, a bag of corn hung from the tree. A similar note, written on a shred of paper, accompanied the produce. Signing my name to the tidbit, I added a brief note of thanks, stuck it neatly in the notch, and then went about my day. That night, I returned home to the sweet, coveted taste of raw corn on the cob. I love it—dinner for three on the good will of another. Thanks, Green Thumb Gardener!
The growing season for spaghetti squash and corn may well have found its end, but come autumn, I am hoping for a pumpkin in the campus giving tree (hint, hint)!
That kid,
J.J. Cieslewicz, senior English major from Toquerville
