By Patricia Breakey
ANDES _ If tiny evergreen seedlings spring from the earth dreaming of growing up to be Christmas trees, Edna Joslin's Norway spruce had a long wait.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Christopher Marin and his crew from O'Sullivan's Tree Care of Blauvelt worked at Joslin's home on Cabin Hill Road to prepare the 70-foot tree for its journey to Wall Street, where it is destined to become the New York Stock Exchange's Christmas tree.
Edna Joslin, 88, said the tree has been part of her life since she married Allen Joslin in 1944 and moved to his family homestead. The tree was always part of the landscape, but was festooned with lights at Christmas.
"The tree probably goes back 70 years," Joslin said. "It's just been a tree, but it has grown like topsy. I never decorated it because it would have been a staggering task."
Joslin's son, Bob Joslin, 53, said the property has been in the family for more than a century. He said his grandmother planted a lot of trees, but no one is sure how the spruce arrived.
Edna Joslin said she has a family photo taken when her daughter Karen Joslin, a retired school teacher, was about 10.
"In the picture, Karen is standing in front of the tree, and it was just a little bit taller than she was," Joslin said. "My daughter loves that tree because she has happy memories playing around it. It's sort of sad to see it go."
Bob Joslin said he trimmed the bottom of the tree when he was a teenager so he could do pull-ups on the branches. He said he also remembers a lot of deer hanging in the tree in Novembers past.
"The tree got so big it kind of overwhelmed the yard," he said. "It's a nice tree, but it will kind of open up the yard when it's gone."
Edna Joslin said she was surprised when a man stopped one day to inquire about the spruce.
"It's strange what happens on an ordinary day," she said. "I had the man here mowing my lawn when they arrived. I was dumbfounded to find that they thought the tree was especially pretty."
Jo-Ann McCarville, O'Sullivan Tree Care spokeswoman, said the discovery of the tree was serendipitous.
"It was just a fluke," McCarville said. "Some of the guys are in that area occasionally, and when you are in the tree business, it's just second nature to give all the trees a quick perusal.
"They liked Edna's tree and she just happened to be home," McCarville said.
O'Sullivan Tree Service supplies Christmas trees nationwide including to Lincoln Center, Bryant Park, South Street Seaport, Bowling Green, Mulberry Street and Metrotech in Brooklyn. McCarville said the largest tree this year was a 105-foot spruce from the Poconos that went to the Fiesta Texas Six Flags.
Depending on the requests, the trees range in height from 45 to 115 feet, and most of them are blue spruce or Norway spruce, McCarville said.
"Edna's tree is pretty and very full and symmetrical," McCarville said.
On Wednesday, Marin sat in a chair at the base of the trunk manning a winch as two men perched in the branches of the spruce. They were pulling each branch up against the trunk, where it was tied into place to make the tree compact.
"We have to make it 12 feet wide if it's going to go down the highway," Marin said, gazing up into the tree as pine needles cascaded down around him.
The old branches snapped and cracked as they were pulled, but Marin said when the spruce arrives at the stock exchange, any damage will be fixed.
"The warmer the weather, the better, because the sap is flowing and everything kind of bends," Marin said. "But if some of the branches break, we can fix them and no one will ever know the difference when it has 35,000 to 40,000 lights on it."
Marin said this is the ninth year he has prepared the NYSE tree.
"When we get there, we set it up with a crane, climb back up and cut out all the ropes, and after it sits a couple of hours, we add more branches," Marin said. "Then the union electricians take over and put the lights on it."
Today, Marin and a crew will be back with a crane and a flatbed truck. He estimated the tree would be cut down around noon and then lifted onto the truck for its ride to New York City.
"I feel kind of excited to know that so many people will get pleasure out of my tree," Joslin said.
McCarville said people may e-mail photos of their trees to osulltree@aol.com if they think the trees are full and symmetrical enough to qualify as Christmas trees. She said that in exchange, the company offers services such as pruning other trees, grinding the stump and removing the tree.
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Patricia Breakey can be reached at 746-2894 or at stardelhi@stny.rr.com.
