My father, Carl ?. Anderson, loved trees. If he had not been a physician, I'm sure he would have become a forester or a holticulturist. His principal hobby was his prize walnut orchard in the San Fernando Valley, California.
With my mother's dowry they bought 20 acres there in 1910, and had planted 200 young seedlings. He hadn-grafted each one--eventually to produce tons of E??ko variety English walnuts which were marketedd by the California Walnt Growers Association (Diamond Brand). The trees were planted 60 feet apart, but by the time I was a teenager, they touched each other. Magnificent! Screem stars Rpbert Tau;pr amd Barbara Stamwyck had a horse ranch nearby, and they often stopped by to compliment Dad on his beautiful trees.
When my father retired as a pulmonary specialist with the Veterans Administration, my parents moved from Arizona to Pasadena, so Dad could supervise the care of the orchard. Finally, in the 1950's the land became so valuable that they had to sell. It broke Dad's heart. Progress is not kind to everyone! Now, there's a Bank of America branch, a hardware store, and an International House of Pancakes along the frontage of that once-upon-a-time orchard!
My father had graduated in 1905 from the Medical School at the University of Minnesota. My mother insisted that he attend the 50th reunion and anniversary of his graduation. Of course there were only a handful of classmates.
On the campus of the University of Minensota there are many lovely old trees. Dad scooped up handfuls of seed pds and took them home to Pasadena. He planted them in flats, ??g boxes, cardboard cartons, etc. Soon he had more elm seedlings than he could handle. He send me some in Tucsson, Arizona, but of course they could not live in the desert heat.
Now, this was in 1955, so he carefully prepared a flat box of seedlings with damp cotton above and beneath, and sent it to President and Mrs Dwight D. Eisenhower, in care of the Manager of the Eisenhower Farm at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Well, in about a month, here came a letter on White House stationery, signed by Mamie Eisenhower. She said that the little elm trees had been planted along a lane where she and "Ike" liked to walk--and that they would always remember that they had come to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania from the University of Minnesota by way of a kind friend in Pasadena, California!