Eucalyptus Memories
I grew up alongside the Torrey Pines State
Reserve, and attended Torrey Pines High School, so
I'd probably have to vote the Torrey pine as my
favorite tree. Few trees can match its quiet
majesty, and there's no sight quite like a gnarled,
towering Torrey pine gripping a sandstone bluff,
overlooking the blue Pacific. But the eucalyptus
would be a close runner-up. My appreciation of the
Torrey pine stems from an objective recognition of
its beauty, but my love for the eucalyptus is much
more personal. It inspires sense memories of
simpler times, echoes of a youth unclouded by
cynicism and disillusionment. If one could feel
kinship with a tree, that would describe how I
feel.
Such strong feelings about a plant likely arise
from the omnipresence of the eucalyptus in most of
my childhood memories. Though the tree is not
native to San Diego, it has long since established
itself as one of the most common trees in the city.
Much of the suburb of Scripps Ranch, for instance,
is a vast forest of eucalyptus trees. The San Diego
Zoo acquired koala bears from Australia in 1925,
perhaps because eucalyptus trees grew so abundantly
here (koalas eat eucalyptus leaves, and nothing
else). Even my high school was surrounded by
eucalyptus trees, not Torrey pine trees.
My first love was zoology, and had I chosen to
do what I love most, I'd probably be studying
gorillas in the mountains of Africa right now. My
frequent trips to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal
Park thus stand out as magical times in my
childhood. Since countless eucalyptus trees cover
the grounds of both parks, the trees remind me of
such memories on a subconscious level. The trees
also cover the hills and canyons of the local San
Dieguito Park. My visits to this beautiful park as
a child were infrequent enough to keep it special,
so this too has probably contributed to the
eucalyptus tree's ability to inspire subconscious
feelings of happiness.
Many things have the power to make me wax
nostalgic, such as the smell of salt in the air,
the taste of fried bananas, the sound of certain
early-1980s pop music hits. But perhaps no other
single thing feels more like "home" than the humble
eucalyptus tree.
Development note: I've
noticed that this site doesn't look like it should
in Netscape Navigator. Rather than waste time
jury-rigging it to look right in a
soon-to-be-obsolete browser, I'll just add the
cliché "This site best viewed with Internet
Explorer."
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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4/7:
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Sobering
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Great
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