The Penn Stater Magazine

Elm Thoughts

November 26, 2008 at 10:52 am Chas Brua Leave a comment

When I was a freshman at Altoona campus, I took a history course with William Rodner, an outstanding teacher. It’s been 25 years, but bits of info from the class still pop into my mind when I least expect them. One entry in my class notes went something like this: “King George III—he talked to trees.”

The mad old king isn’t the only one. When I pass doomed trees at construction sites, I sometimes make them a promise: “I’ll remember where you stood and what you looked like.”

Photo by Laura Stocker Waldhier/Penn State Department of Public Information

I was thinking about that the other day while waiting for my bus in front of Deike Building. One of the elms across the street has a bluish paint dot near its base; I assume the marking was put there by Penn State’s tree crews. They’ve had to cut down a lot of elms around campus lately—including another tree near Deike—because of an incurable disease called “elm yellows.”

I don’t know whether the bluish dot signifies something bad or good for the elm I saw.

Writing about this made me think of a poem by Robin Becker, who teaches at Penn State. It’s called “The Grief of Trees” and describes the aftermath of an ice storm. I haven’t read it for awhile, but when I get home, I’m going to find it and read it again.

Chas Brua, contributing editor

Entry filed under: University Park campus. Tags: Deike Building, elm trees, elm yellows, elms, Robin Becker, William Rodner.