{"id":160072,"date":"2023-05-10T15:50:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T21:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=160072"},"modified":"2023-05-10T15:50:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T21:50:45","slug":"trees-cant-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2023\/05\/10\/trees-cant-run.html","title":{"rendered":"“Trees Can’t Run!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I collect and research quotations, to a degree that some might deem obsessive. The fruits of my amateur labor are stashed at my\u00a0Wish I’d Said That\u00a0<\/em>(wist.info<\/a>) website.<\/p>\n

The other day I was doing a deep dive into quotations by Judith Martin, a one-time journalist who shifted into a columnist and bookwriting career as “Miss Manners<\/a>.” Martin’s etiquette work is witty, thought-provoking, grounded, and delightful to read.<\/p>\n

I’d pulled together a (large) number of quotations by her, grouped by books she’d written, and decided to find URLs to those books online so that I could provided proper, linked citations for them. A quote without citation is nearly useless; a citation without a link to prove it exists is merely problematic.<\/p>\n

While I’m a longtime fan of Google Books<\/a>, I’ve of late become an even bigger fan, as a researcher, of the Internet Archive<\/a>. Among its many other invaluable resources, its online collection of scanned eBooks is invaluable in finding or confirming the existence of quoted text, in a way that access to the biggest research library would find challenging.<\/p>\n

So I searched at IA for books by “Martin, Judith,”<\/a>, and amidst the various Miss Manners books (and books by other people with that name), I ran across a volume that made me do a double-take:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
An oddly familiar cover<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Huh,<\/em> I said, looking at it. That reminds me of a play I was in back in … 2nd grade, I think.<\/em><\/p>\n

And it was, in fact, my stage debut. Not that I have an extensive theater career, but I did a lot of plays in school, and in college, and even a couple of things since then, and this, this reminded me of that very first play.<\/p>\n

I didn’t remember the title, but I remembered cardboard cutout trees that looked like that.<\/p>\n

And I opened the book — and, by golly, this was in fact the book (and script) for that play.\u00a0The Tree Angel<\/a>,<\/em> published in 1962.<\/p>\n

It’s a frothy bit of children’s theater silliness, about a trio of trees chopped down by a woodcutter, rescued by an angel who gives them legs, letting them out-run the woodcutter who comes back to drag them off.<\/p>\n

While written for three kids (as trees) and a couple more as the angel and woodcutter (which can actually be performed by a single person), it can also be expanded to fit a full class, with three speaking trees, a bunch of relatively silent trees, and (in the case of Mrs. Bogosian’s class) two<\/em> woodcutters.<\/p>\n

I was Woodcutter #2. And I had one line. And here it is, as illustrated by Remy Charlip:<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
“Trees can’t run!”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Trees can’t run!”<\/p>\n

Of such lines are great theater careers made. Or not, but it stuck with me all these years, so we’ll say great memories of theater careers, instead.<\/p>\n

We woodcutters didn’t have actual axes, of course, but painted, corrugated cardboard cutouts (I had the green-handled axe, much less exciting than the red-handled axe, but I was, after all, only Woodcutter #2<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Fortunately, given the fragility of corrugated cardboard, and the propensity of 2nd grade boys to want to chop at things with a prop like that, it was a one-night show, suitable for parents. I have to wonder if there are pictures lurking in my Mom’s photo albums somewhere.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, the author of the play was not Judith “Miss Manners” Martin, but a child theater artist named Judith Martin who passed away a decade ago. She co-founded the Paper Bag Theater in 1960, focused on contemporary theater for children using everyday themes and props. It looks like she had a marvelous career.<\/p>\n

I was a bit disappointed to learn in the end that a seminal literary and theatrical experience for me wasn’t actually crafted by “Miss Manners,” providing some sort of subliminal influence over me all these years — but it was still amazing running across the book unexpectedly, and the backpaths of memory it took me along.<\/p>\n

Do You Want To Know More?<\/em><\/p>\n