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A poetic season’s greetings
Photo
This 34-foot blue spruce Christmas tree was donated by city resident Richard Greenwalt of Lansing Avenue. Diamond Steel Construction employees, including Marty Martin, pictured above, volunteered to help the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation get the tree to downtown Central Square.
Twas days before Thanksgiving, when all through the square, Drivers slowed down their cars, eyes fixed in a stare.
A blue spruce had arrived, taken downtown with care,
In the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
The tree grew up near Richard Greenwalt’s home,
A proud, sturdy spruce, 34 feet it had grown.
And its location just perfect, free of electrical wires,
Workers felled the tree, hearing the groan of the tires.
A Diamond Steel truck lumbered down the street,
Its cargo well-known as a holiday treat.
Away in the square, quick as a flash,
Park employees readied the site in a dash.
Marty Martin, the driver, had twinkles in his eye,
When he turned the corner and saw city signs.
As he kept to his task, mouth drawn up like a bow,
The beard on his chin gleamed as white as the snow.
Martin spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
He hitched the tree to a crane, then turned with a jerk.
He took a step back and used all of his might,
To imagine the tree decked with 2,000 lights.
Then he sprang to his truck, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
And people heard him exclaim as he drove far away,
“Seasons greetings to all, and to all a good Thanksgiving Day!”
(composed in honor of Clement Clarke Moore)