By: Carol Silva
Well, we've done it again. Over Thanksgiving weekend, my husband and kids
and I had our annual debate over the car radio (and now the ipod remote) on our way out to Lewin's Tree Farm on Fresh Pond Avenue in Baiting Hollow. We cut down our Christmas tree.
But music wasn't the only debate of the day.
One of the things I love about Lewins is the "hay wagon" ride out into their hundreds of acres of tree farm. It's actually a tractor pulled wagon that takes about 25 or 30 people out to the land "the way it used to be." You can get off the wagon at any point along the way. Then you and yours hike into the "woods," among thousands of firs, in search of the perfect tree. Not too tall, not too bald (except for the spot that you can hide against the wall) and not too fat to fit into the tree stand.
(Some equal time here - over the years, our family has gone to Darts in Southold, North Fork Preserve Christmas Tree Farm on Sound Avenue in Riverhead and Mike's Christmas Tree Farm on Weeks Avenue in Manorville.)
But back to Friday at Lewins. So we piled on the wagon with about 10 other families for the great Christmas tree hunt. No Charlie Brown tree for us! You can bring your own saw as we did, or Lewins will loan you one of their "not so gently used" saws. Then - we
"saw" it - 2 families had actually brought chain saws!
The outrage. I mean that just doesn't fit into the whole, "fighting over which tree is the perfect tree, trying not to lose the one you SWEAR was the one you'd all semi-agreed on earlier, and hot chocolate" theme. How COULD they?
So we got off with one of those irreverent tree hunting families. They went their way, we went ours. I felt like a man this year - not like I was going to lay down in the dirt among the pine needles until I "felled" that tree. But I picked our tree out within 3 minutes, we marked it with my son's red scarf, we looked at other potentials, but came back to the original.
Then my 14-year old son - who now towers over me at 5'8" - was handed the family saw. "Son, this year you are a man." He is. And an athlete. In fact a rower. Very strong arms. But he couldn't get very far with our first family saw (why do we bring those 2 "house" saws every year? They never work!) Then we gave him the second family saw, then the Lewins saw. Then the veteran got down there. My husband. Again, not much movement. It turns out our tree had a "double trunk." Two trunks in one - so it was more like chopping down a great Redwood Tree in Northern California with a steak knife.
So then it happened. I caved. The sun was setting. It was getting colder. I thought we could be stranded out in those cold, dark woods for days, with nothing to eat except for the gum that was then frozen in my coat pocket.
I told my family I was going in search of help. And I ran off and found it. In the guy with the chain saw! No kidding. He wasn't hard to find. I heard him out there. I implored him to help us have a Christmas this year. In less than 3 minutes we were done. Our tree was ready for the thousand lights it would get at home!
And what was the name of the guy with the chain saw? JASON! No kidding! And when he looked at me a second time he realized I work at News 12. He flipped the collar of his jacket up - it was a Cablevision Lightpath jacket. You see, we work for the same company. So I guess we used a "family" saw after all.
Merry Christmas!