Identifying Leaves

In the fourth grade, my teacher assigned us a science project where we were instructed to create a scrapbook containing as many leaves as we could find. However, the challenge was not only did we have to find them; we had to identify them as well. As you can imagine this could have been a very intimidating project, especially since we did not have the internet. What I did have was a grandfather who knew everything about the woods.

On Saturday that week, my mom took me out to the farm and I got to spend an amazing afternoon of discovery with my grandfather in the woods. He helped me to find what now seems like hundreds of different leaves. Not only did he help me to identify them, but he also opened my eyes to what each tree was good for. He told me which ones would be the best to build a house with, what size cedar logs would make the best fence posts, and which type of trees would make the best firewood.

I learned about how to identify the sassafras tree and that by digging up some roots and boiling them you could make tea. A great drink I would later share with my own children.

He pointed at the squirrel’s nests high in the tops of the trees and the vines full of muscadines, which we picked and ate. In the space of one afternoon, my eyes opened to a whole world of nature that I had never seen before. Even now when I am in a forest, I find myself looking around and enjoying every bit of God’s great creation.

In addition to learning about the forest, I also, heard stories about how the early settlers built the community and where roads were that many years prior weeds and brush had overgrown and hidden from view. Even as I am now older, I still know where some of those old roadbeds are. There was one story he told of an old school house that was through the woods that I am not sure if there is any record of its existence.

I learned how as a boy he had hunted all over the hills in that community to help provide food for the family. In the space of one afternoon, I received an education that would fill volumes if you could write it down. Makes me wish he would have lived longer and I could have had the forethought to write down the history contained in that one man’s head.

Even now, I still think about my grandfather and love the great example of a man that he was. Nevertheless, I will forever be grateful that he turned something as mundane as a science project into an adventure that has lasted my whole life.