In today’s world, if we think of a question and wonder about it, we can always get out our electronic device and Google the question to get an answer.

I remember as a child, when taking a break under a shade tree at the end of a peanut row, I would get my package of grape Kool-Aid that I had slipped out of the house, get some water, then eat the Kool-Aid and drink from the water can lid, and wonder about things. This dry Kool-Aid was the forerunner of Sweet-Tarts.

When thinking about unknown thoughts, back then, the thoughts were left unknown. We probably could not even find that information in an encyclopedia. There, I spelled encyclopedia correctly, with the help of my computer. Seems like we learned to spell that word watching some television show back in the fifties.

My question today is, “How would you burn down a standing dead hickory tree in one night?” Of course, this is not an earth shattering question. But, I have tried to Google this and could not find an answer.

When Loretta and I lived on an acreage south of Allen, we had a hickory tree die out in the middle of the pasture. More than likely after-effects of the summer of 1980. You can definitely Google about that hot and dry summer in Oklahoma for information. For two years, limbs would fall off and I would stack them around the base of the tree. Late one spring Saturday evening, conditions were right for trying to burn it down. Not much wind, the grass was green around it. I did the usual, stacked the kindling wood around it, put diesel on the base of the tree, then started the fire. For about twenty minutes, everything was good, then the fire died out.

I was about to give up when my dad happened to drive up. After he saw my disastrous attempt at this, he asked me, “Do you want to burn this dead tree down tonight?” I said yes, and then he told me to get more kindling and an old split red oak post. My thinking was that a split post made in the fifties by Rich Warren would burn up quicker than what I had already tried. Anyway, I did as he said. As he was holding the split post, I put more kindling at the base of the tree, all the while thinking this was useless.

After I got another fire going, he instructed me to lean the split post up against the tree with the base a couple of feet from the fire. As Jack Way used to say in his sermons, “Lo and Behold,” The burn was actually getting into the tree. We visited for a while, making sure this was going to work. We then left it burning.

Early Sunday morning, I drove up to where the tree was. It had fallen down and was still smoldering on the ground. I was kind of shocked!

My dad knew nothing about Bernoulli’s principle, which is about air flow over an uneven surface, but he knew placing that split post on a standing tree fire would act as a natural air bellows.

So much for Google when actual experience is better!!