The Santa Rosa plum tree in our backyard is wizened and has many tales to tell. Her age is a mystery to me. So many beautiful moments in our family’s history have occurred within her arms and in the shade of her leaves. A chronicle of our children’s lives can be traced through this tree.

Sam and Denali (twins) were born in March. Their first summer was a hot one. We spent much time with them in the shade of the plum tree on a bright red bedspread we had. They had yet to master the art of crawling so we’d occasionally have to flip them. “Tummy time” was a precursor to crawling. Like all new parents we took many photographs of our kids. The red bedspread features prominently in a particularly memorable photo shoot, an example of which is among the favorites we’ve ever taken. The photo is a close up of our two babies from their bellybuttons up. Sam is looking off to the right wearing the same 100 watt smile he wears today. Denali is looking straight at the camera, her serious expression pondering the meaning of it all. Their ivory bodies stand in stark contrast against the deep red background.

In a blink infants became toddlers and our venerable tree takes on another function. There comes a point in a day of caring for the twins when we simply needed to find a safe place they could not escape from just so we could catch our breath. The answer: tree swings! We hung the swings side by side from the tree’s lowest and sturdiest horizontal branch. We’d strap the kids in tightly and start pushing. Sam and Denali would squeal with delight the higher and faster they went, their hair flying in the wind, smiling with the pure joy that only children know. We used these swings until we just couldn’t squeeze either of them in any longer.

Now trees are meant to be climbed and our plum is no exception. When the twins were tall and agile enough they’d range over the tree like two monkeys. One of her branches hangs out over the top railing of our deck and provides gangplank like access to the rest of the tree. When they first started climbing the tree I’d stand on the ground looking up at them, terrified at the prospect of a fall. They of course were fearless, hopping from branch to branch with glee. It wasn’t long before a requisition was submitted for the construction of a treehouse. The configuration of her branches does not lend itself to an actual house so I did the next best thing. Out of salvaged plywood and 2×4’s I built a sturdy platform about seven feet off the ground, later adding a second platform higher up the tree. The kids affixed various ropes and handholds throughout the tree. These platforms have staying power and are still occasionally in use today.

Sam and Denali continued to grow and their play became more sophisticated. One evening they had the notion to string a zipline from the lower platform to our apple tree, a whopping 15 feet away! Carol and I watched with amusement as together they figured out how to engineer the thing. It ended up working perfectly, and they zipped happily back and forth between the two trees well into the night. I have video footage as evidence. The zipline remained operable for months until both trees leafed out in the spring.

In the summer of their 13th birthday the kids attended a week-long camp at Vertex Climbing Gym. Rock climbing became their new passion. They returned home at the end of camp and immediately began screwing hand holds into the trunk and thicker branches of the plum, which has now become an impromptu climbing wall. They rigged harnesses out of rope and carabiners and like Hillary and Tenzig up they went. Sam and Denali both eventually became members at the gym (Sam is on the climbing team). The plum tree was one of the places where they honed their mountaineering skills.

Two months ago, the twins turned sixteen. The zipline has long ago been dismantled, the climbing wall holds mostly rotted or fallen off. Surprisingly enough the tree platforms are still intact. The tree swings, long gone in a yard sale, have come full circle. Sam has always been good with his hands and  recently built a sturdy new swing out of wood. And the tree? Like all living things that have been around for a while she’s begun to show her age. Numerous cracked and dead branches have recently been removed. More and more lichen now mars the once smooth surface of her bark. However, her long arms still reach towards the sky, her leaves still provide us with cooling shade in summer. She’s still home to myriad birds and a squirrel who we affectionately refer to as Mr. Nibbles because of his propensity for munching apples up in the treehouse. And the plums? For nearly two decades they have nourished our family, our neighbors and so many of the kids’ friends. Watching Sam and Denali bite into a sun warmed plum, red juice dripping down their chins, is to see them taste the essence of summer. There are many green plums ripening on the tree’s branches right now, in fact, and summer is on the way.