Chinkypins

By the time the song "Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire" was written in 1946 most of the American Chestnut trees were dead and chestnuts were hard to find. My grandmother told me of roasting them when she was young. However, we did had a cousin to the Chestnut who survived, the proper name is Chinquapin. Or as we called it Chinkypins. The nuts were very similar to the chestnut but smaller. When my first daughter was born and her eyes turned from newborn deep blue to dark brown my daddy called them her "chinkypin eyes". Little dark chestnut eyes. And her first child has the same eyes.

The Chestnut blight hit in 1904 and most died by the late 30's. Can you imagine 4 billion dying in the Eastern part of the U.S.? Anyway the remains of that dead one was a most beautiful weathered sliver grey. The rough bark was long gone and it was polished smooth by time's sandpaper. I loved it. At some point I remember seeing a red headed woodpecker nesting in a hollow high up near the broken top. I felt better knowing it was sheltering
her babies.
 

Anyway, because the chinkypin burrs were so prickly my daddy would watch for the burrs to open and do the honors and collect them for me. I can still see his mischievous grin when he would hold out his hand full of the little nuts for me. He is gone now too.

Can I just say that time changes all things, and old things pass away, and we have to look back with love at what we now can only remember. I would hate to find out that the old Chestnut tree is completely gone now. I had rather just remember it as it was.




Here is an amazing photo of HUGE chestnut trees while they were still growing and used for lumber in North Carolina. Ours was not this large!