Death in the Forests

August 1914 ... Kate Chew's memory of the summer when she was 6, about to start school:

Kate's mother, Liza Chew c1920

“Mother invited the new school teacher to supper to get 

acquainted with us.  We were going chestnut hunting, and she came along.  

“With our tin pails, we trotted down the hill to the cool dark woods.  The chestnuts had fallen and were lying around under the trees with their spring burrs open.

“We used our heels to open them further, mashing the outside burr until the nuts were safe to handle.  We bit into them, spitting out the bitter husks, and ate the sweet inner kernels.  Our pails were soon full and, come November, we would roast the chestnuts in the open fire.

Sam, Kate, Virginia Chew c1914

“It was an idyllic affair, a warm breezy afternoon, the children running through the woods, the ladies in their long white skirts making friends.  

“In Europe, where the summer had also been beautiful, the guns of August had been readied.  A grand duke and his wife had been assassinated, and the nations were lining up and taking sides.  

“But we played heedlessly, not knowing the world would never be the same.

“That was also the year of the American Chestnut Blight - death in the forests.  Soon the trunks of tall gray ghostlike trees showed throughout the eastern states.  No more sweet juicy nuts to enjoy.” 

(from “Memories of a MD Girlhood 1908-28” by Kate Chew Robinson. Unpub.)