By Maylon Rice
One the greatest untold modern day mystery in Bradley County is a Christmas story that just will not go away.
Oh it is not a tale of a poor family, finding an overflowing sack of gifts on their front porch on a cold, wet Christmas Eve.
It is not a well-worn rendition of a home-town merchant writing off every single script account for his customers at his local corner grocery store.
Nor it is a saga of war-ravaged solider stepping off the Greyhound bus to greet his tearful family on a snowy, cold winter’s eve.
Someone cut down a beautiful cedar tree at the city’s only and private golf course, the Warren Country Club.
Who did it?
Well, rumors to this day still abound.
So let’s set some context here.
The Warren Country Club was incorporated in the post-WW II years with several families buying or purchasing shares for a nine-hole golf course.
Then club members added a small, but functional meeting room.
Next, the club expanded to a place to relax in a private setting and on occasion, even enjoy some adult beverages.
Not all the members drank. Most did.
Some just played golf.
Others enjoyed the occasional dinners offered over the years by an odd-collection of club managers, caterers and well-known cooks.
There were lots of improvements made to the golf course and grounds over the last few decades. Several ladies, from the club membership, often brought their hand-picked garden men and women to help plant flowers, shrubs and even trees.
The club was, and still is developing, after all these years.
Early on in the club’s existence, there were several natural cedar trees growing along the Country Club’s grounds.
One, in particular, was an impressive tree.
It was well shaped, tall and full limbs in its bounty.
Patrons of the club knew of the tree. Talked about its beauty and how it added to the surroundings of the course and the club’s grounds.
Lo and behold, shortly after Thanksgiving, it came up missing.
The tree was sawed right off at the ground level.
Marks were seen where the tree culprits had dragged the tree to the nearby Country Club parking lot and then spirited away the tree.
And just before Christmas!
A Country Editor, Bob Newton, back then mentioned the theft of the tree in his popular newspaper column, The Editor’s Notebook.
People in town talked and talked about the missing tree.
A meeting of the Board of the Country Club was set to meet.
And then all the talk just died down.
The tree it seems was not in hiding, but in a very prominent home.
It was on display in the big front window for all traveling by at night to witness its splendor and brilliance.
Why the tree was right there in the midst of town.
So who cut down the Country Club’s fine tree?
It is only a mystery if you don’t know who cut it down?
Merry Christmas everyone.
But it is a Pastime worth telling and re-telling over the years.
One the greatest untold modern day mystery in Bradley County is a Christmas story that just will not go away.
Oh it is not a tale of a poor family, finding an overflowing sack of gifts on their front porch on a cold, wet Christmas Eve.
It is not a well-worn rendition of a home-town merchant writing off every single script account for his customers at his local corner grocery store.
Nor it is a saga of war-ravaged solider stepping off the Greyhound bus to greet his tearful family on a snowy, cold winter’s eve.
Someone cut down a beautiful cedar tree at the city’s only and private golf course, the Warren Country Club.
Who did it?
Well, rumors to this day still abound.
So let’s set some context here.
The Warren Country Club was incorporated in the post-WW II years with several families buying or purchasing shares for a nine-hole golf course.
Then club members added a small, but functional meeting room.
Next, the club expanded to a place to relax in a private setting and on occasion, even enjoy some adult beverages.
Not all the members drank. Most did.
Some just played golf.
Others enjoyed the occasional dinners offered over the years by an odd-collection of club managers, caterers and well-known cooks.
There were lots of improvements made to the golf course and grounds over the last few decades. Several ladies, from the club membership, often brought their hand-picked garden men and women to help plant flowers, shrubs and even trees.
The club was, and still is developing, after all these years.
Early on in the club’s existence, there were several natural cedar trees growing along the Country Club’s grounds.
One, in particular, was an impressive tree.
It was well shaped, tall and full limbs in its bounty.
Patrons of the club knew of the tree. Talked about its beauty and how it added to the surroundings of the course and the club’s grounds.
Lo and behold, shortly after Thanksgiving, it came up missing.
The tree was sawed right off at the ground level.
Marks were seen where the tree culprits had dragged the tree to the nearby Country Club parking lot and then spirited away the tree.
And just before Christmas!
A Country Editor, Bob Newton, back then mentioned the theft of the tree in his popular newspaper column, The Editor’s Notebook.
People in town talked and talked about the missing tree.
A meeting of the Board of the Country Club was set to meet.
And then all the talk just died down.
The tree it seems was not in hiding, but in a very prominent home.
It was on display in the big front window for all traveling by at night to witness its splendor and brilliance.
Why the tree was right there in the midst of town.
So who cut down the Country Club’s fine tree?
It is only a mystery if you don’t know who cut it down?
Merry Christmas everyone.
But it is a Pastime worth telling and re-telling over the years.
No comments:
Post a Comment