Georgia: Magnolias, Turtles and Dogwood

When I was around 5 years old we moved from Farmington Utah to Warner Robbins Georgia. I remember asking my mom if I would have to learn a new language and she told me no. She was wrong, by the way, but that is a different story. At this time, Anne was already married, Kurtis and Linda were at college (I think Kurtis was at college, but he might have been on his mission) and Doug, Devn and I were at home.

My dad loved to explore and go out in the wild areas. He loved to watch birds, learn about nature and often took my brothers camping. (Hunting too when they lived in Utah.) I remember one day daddy, Doug, Devn and I went out in the "wilds" of Georgia. I honestly have no idea where we went but we parked the car on the road and got our and walked. I think we stopped to look at a large magnolia tree, then we wandered deeper into the woods and looked around. I remember that there was a stream and we found turtles. Some were large snapping turtles and I think my brothers took a stick and made the turtle snap at it. Not tormenting it, but to watch it snap at the stick. By large I really mean the turtle was about the size of a small dinner plate. But of course, that was large to me.


Daddy found a smaller turtle which was NOT a snapping turtle and we took it home to be my pet. I wasn't very good at taking care of the turtle, it was about 2 inches in diameter and quite friendly. I kept it inside for a while, but I would take it outside to play and I lost it. Later I remember finding it in the yard and I played with it for a while and then put it back. I don't remember ever seeing it again. It was fun for a while, but I lost interest quickly.

So back to our outing, we walked around a little more and looked at the woods. Daddy grew up in Colorado and Doug and Devn in Utah, so the woods in Georgia were quite amazing to us, well to them, I didn't really understand the difference. When we were done, we walked back to the car. We stopped at the magnolia tree and daddy found a large blossom that we took home to mother. I believe that particular tree had white blossoms on it. I remember that mother put it in a large soup bowl of water and it lasted for several days. It was beautiful and smelled wonderful.

Speaking of flowers, I remember that Georgia had many Dogwood trees. There were new to us and quite beautiful. Of course, there were many beautiful flowers in Georgia that we didn't have in Utah. These trees grow abundantly there. They aren't as fragrant as magnolias, nor are the blossoms as big, but there is a legend about these trees that I think is kind of cool. The legend is that the wood of this tree was used to make Jesus' cross. The tree was so sad that is was used for this that it never again grew big enough for its wood to be used in this way. Also, if you look at the blossom you can see that it is in the shape of a cross and that the tip of each blossom has a sort of cut hole with pink around it. This is to symbolize the blood that Jesus shed for us. Like I said, cool!

Next up - flying squirrels!