Souvenir trees: Adventurer’s yard is a living scrapbook of his travels

By Maureen Houston

News-Democrat
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Charles Woodford’s trees are souvenirs of where he’s been.

The one with the long teardrop-shaped leaves came from Kentucky’s Cumberland State Park. It may be in the eucalyptus family. “This tree isn’t too much to look at now,” he said, standing next to a backyard picnic table in early November, a few of the 18-inch long leaves spread across its top. “We called it a tobacco tree. Kids living near the state park would gather these leaves and sell them for 25 cents apiece to tourists that would visit the falls and gift shop. They’d tell the tourists they were tobacco leaves.”

The slow-growing, more than 20-year-old tobacco tree struggled its first years here, but eventually settled in. Birds made nests in its sparse branches and, one late spring night, years after its roots were firmly planted, it even offered a surprise.

“My wife saw it and thought there was a growth on it, as big as its blossom was. The blossoms resemble oversized orchids and last only 24 to 36 hours. It didn’t do it at first, but it’s been blooming for the last nine years.”

His wife, Phyllis, an adventurer just like her husband, died four years ago.

“We always wanted to bring back a tree from places we visited,” said Charles, 84, who lives in East Belleville. Every summer, the Woodfords took their son and daughter on a two-week vacation after school let out.

“We’d take some of the soil around the tree, wrap it tightly in plastic and keep it moist,” he said.

They brought back the long-needled pine in 1990 from Lolo National Forest in Missoula, Mont., where Charles volunteers.

“I’m in charge of opening and closing up the picnic area. I am there for a month. I take about four days going and four days coming.”

The trees, besides reminding him of where he has been, make a difference in the summertime.

“We’ve only had to close up the house a few times.”

Several cedars hail from northern Minnesota, the boundary water area where Charles and his family canoed. They join a yard dotted with maples, dogwoods, elms, three dogwoods and a couple red buds — a ll trees affected by the Nov. 30 ice storm that also left Charles without electricity for six days. The tobacco tree losts its top 10 feet when a big elm clipped it on the way down.

“The cedars came through in good shape. The elms, maples and dogwoods really caught it.

“I had to use a chainsaw to get my car out of the driveway to go to work,” he said of the day after the storm hit. “I’ve got holes in the roof and guttering down. It looks like a battlefield. My backyard is a complete disaster area.” But Belleville East baseball players came to his aid Wednesday afternoon. Coach Todd Blomberg’s wife, Diana, had heard about Charles’ mess at the coffee shop where she works. She told her husband that one of East’s biggest supporters could use some help. Instead of practice, the team showed up to clear the yard of debris.

“They’re usually lifting weights and running,” Coach Blomberg said. “I thought it would be a great team-building activity.”

The guys made quick work of the project, stacking the cleared limbs into neat piles. Charles marveled at the job.

“It’s the greatest thing that’s happened to me in a long time.”

How the Woodfords put

down roots in Belleville

Charles and Phyllis Woodford, originally from Iowa, were living in Pennsylvania in 1950 and trying to get back to the Midwest when Charles learned of a Civil Service position at Scott Air Force Base.

Two weeks later, the outdoorsman was offered a similar position in Colorado.

“I don’t know how many cups of coffee we went through,” he recalled. “We decided it wouldn’t look good to be some place two to three weeks. I don’t regret it. This is a fantastic place to live.”

Hall-of-Famers: The grandfather of three has been a Belleville East sports fan since his children attended. Son Wick graduated in 1970; daughter Terry Woodford-Thomas in 1972. In 2004, Charles and Phyllis were inducted into the Belleville East Hall of Fame.

Other interests: In his spare time, he makes bookcases from airplane wings and lamp bases from airplane pistons, selling them at craft fairs and on the Internet.

He works part-time at Borders (”Where else can you be off six weeks and a job is waiting for you when you come back?”), collects stamps and likes to read books on aviation, military history and the Civil War. A recent good one was “Tail End Charlie,” about the last Bomber company in World War II.

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/living/16245936.htm