Baseballs and Black Walnuts

A story Jean Kerr told his daughter, Barbara

The original black walnut tree that was planted at the first Hewitt Donation Land Claim home was a huge tree–four feet in diameter. I remember walking by the tree to go to school in the first grade. It was extremely healthy and strong–a huge tree. When no one harvested the walnuts, hundreds of little walnut trees grew around it.

The walnuts were very oily. My brother, Kerwin, and I would fill our pockets with them when we walked by it and take them home.

When we moved to the Homestead and went to High Heaven School, we made our own sports equipment.We wrapped one of the walnuts in string to make a baseball. I don’t remember what we covered it with, but after a while the oil from the walnut seeped through the string and the covering.

[Henry and Elizabeth Hewitt > James Andrew Hewitt >
Sylva Hewitt Kerr > Kerwin Kerr and Jean Kerr]

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