A Living Souvenir

When my Dad got his undergraduate degree from USL (University of Southwestern Louisiana) in Lafayette, Louisiana, if I'm remembering the story correctly, USL gave the graduates an acorn from one of the live oak trees on campus.  My dad gave it to his grandmother and she put it in a coffee can and later planted it in her yard right smack dab in the middle of Kinder, Louisiana.  There it grew and grew and grew and now is a big live oak.

I like things like that - growing things that have some significance and have sentimental value.  I've posted in the past about doing the same thing by planting an acorn from an Alamo Oak when Tricia and I were engaged in San Antonio, Texas.  I also have an 8 foot tall oak tree that I grew from an acorn I picked up in Tallahassee, Florida during a difficult time in our lives.  In a time where many things are disposable and are here today - gone tomorrow, I like the idea of being able to look at a tree and tell kids and/or grandkids stories about memories surrounding the planting of that tree.  It gives some semblance of permanence or a living legacy or heritage.

Since LSU's alma mater begins with the words: "Where stately oaks and broad magnolias shade inspiring halls," I thought it would be a good idea to replicate USL's oak tree tradition and give my daughter a live oak tree grown from an acorn picked up from campus to commemorate her graduation from LSU in the spring of 2016.  The only problem was that I couldn't find any acorns in May.  I remedied that on a recent trip to LSU for a football game.  As we walked around campus, I picked up acorns from several oak trees around campus and put them in my pocket.

Future "Stately" Oaks

Last weekend I planted the eight live oak acorns in a terra cotta pot on the back patio and I keep the soil moist by watering them every other day.

Two acorns about to be covered with soil and watered

I'll keep checking on them and hopefully will soon see sprouts emerging from the soil.  In a post from earlier this year that you can read by clicking HERE I told the story about a book called The Man Who Planted Trees.  That book was inspiring to me and reinforced the idea that you can make a difference by planting trees.  That's one of the reasons I came home with a pocket full of live oak acorns from a football game.  We'll see in a little while if any of the 8 acorns germinates.  If not, I'll fill my pockets on my next visit and we'll try this out again.