Toomer’s Oaks Are More Than Just Trees

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This week, I was hoping we’d all be able to move past the story of Auburn’s poisoned oak trees.  But as my inbox proved yesterday, we sadly are not.  So let me quickly step you through the Toomer’s Corner story from MrSEC.com’s point of view:


1.  The story breaks that someone has poisoned the historic trees on Auburn’s campus.  Most of the emails we receive in response say that this is a disgusting act and the idiot(s) who did it should do time.

2.  When Harvey Updyke is arrested a day later, 90% of the emailers want the book thrown at him, but about 10% of the folks contacting us start to say, “They’re just trees.”

3.  Over the weekend, the emails we receive begin to bubble over with sarcasm — “Boo-hoo over the Barners’ (expletive) trees” read one — and some even started to take us to task for “playing up” a “BS” story.


Here’s the thing: The Toomer’s Corner trees weren’t just trees.  Let me explain what I mean by that.

I have a nice, gold ring.  I don’t wear any other jewelry, but that one ring is on my hand every day.  The 1925 coin set into the ring was a gift from my great-great-grandfather to my grandfather.  My grandmother took that coin, had it set into a ring, and gave that ring to my grandfather as a gift.  When my grandfather passed away nearly 25 years ago, the ring went to my father, the oldest son in the family.  My father is a minister and didn’t feel that it was appropriate to stand in the pulpit wearing a bright gold ring.  So he passed the ring along to me.  And I’ve worn it for 20 years.

Now if someone stole that ring, a person could easily tell me, “Hey, it’s just a ring.”  No doubt I could find another 1925 coin, go to a jeweler, and have them make a duplicate ring.

Only I couldn’t. 

My ring has special meaning to me.  It’s the coin my great-great-grandfather held.  It’s the ring my grandfather wore.  Just a ring?  Not if you’re blessed to have any sentimentality at all.

The 130-year-old oaks at Toomer’s Corner should be thought of in the same way as my ring.  In the same way as your family heirlooms or keepsakes.  Students at Auburn have walked under those trees in parts of three different centuries.  Grandfathers let their sons roll those trees with toilet paper after Auburn victories.  Sons let their sons do the same.  Those trees have provided a place of shared joys and memories.

You might scoff at the “murder” of Auburn’s trees, but that only reveals that something is missing from your make-up.  Someone who loves his own traditions yet holds no respect for the traditions (or politics or religion) of others, exhibits a weakness of character.

So to the many SEC fans who’ve written us to say that Auburn’s trees are “just trees,” why don’t you let someone come after your school’s sacred landmark and then share your feelings on vandalism.  Let’s say someone knocked over the Denny Chimes on Alabama’s quad.  I’ll bet no Tide fans would say, “Aw, it’s just a bunch of bricks.”

And to the few of you out there who’ve pointed out that Auburn’s trees were expected to die in the next 20-30 years anyway… so are you.  No, maybe not in 20-30 years, but we each die a little bit every day.  You’re dying as you read this.  That doesn’t mean someone would be doing you a favor by putting a pillow over your face to speed up the process.  To say the trees were dying anyway is an awfully childish defense of the indefensible.

Clearly, the further we get from the initial shock of Updyke’s insane, ugly act, the more it seems some rival SEC fans are going to lash back against those who are upset for Auburn.  Newsflash: The people upset by the destruction of a tradition don’t have a problem.  It’s the people who can’t grasp the meaning of someone else’s tradition who have a problem.