Way back when Christmas trees were free for the taking for country folk we started the process of finding one as early as late October during the great chinquapin and hickory nut hunts.
This time wasn't for the cutting down and dragging home the tree, but for finding and deciding.
On an Indian Summer Sunday afternoon we went into the woods as a group of free range kids. Before the hunt clubs had put up gates across roads and Keep Out notices nailed about we stalked the time worn trails towards the branches and creeks to where we knew the best crops of those precious nuts would be found. Dow...
