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December 14, 2012
Families find Christmas fun amid bustle of tree farm By Garth Snow gsnow@kpcnews.net
The calendar said Nov. 23 and the thermometer read 30 degrees, agreeing that the Christmas season had arrived. At the St. Joe Christmas Tree Farm, customers pulled carts deep into the fields surrounding the St. Joe Road headquarters. A trolley circled the fields of fir, pine and spruce trees. Wind swirled around the barn and against the workers bundled in overalls. One machine shook needles from trees, and another tree bundled the trees in baling twine. Beyond the open doors of the red shed, workers shaped wreaths of green branches and wire. Shoppers chose wreaths and carried them to the gift shop. Families paused for hot chocolate or coffee. Beyond the commotion, Judy Reifenberg dealt with the details of yet another opening day. She said she and her husband, Mike, make sure customers experience the fun of the Christmas tradition. “We just try to keep it really upbeat,” she said. “We offer the families time to come out and have family time together. So not only do they get to spend time together, get out in the country, have some hot chocolate and coffee, and have a little train ride, they get to take a tree home. After they purchase it, of course.” Families will have that option at the farm through Dec. 19. Some area farms will end their seasons earlier, and some later. The Boyer and Zimmerman families visited the farm, in keeping with a 20year family tradition. Phil and Pat Boyer,
of Woodburn, said they don’t study the trees as carefully as they used to. “We’re getting older now, so we just take the first one that looks good,” Phil said. Their daughter, Angela Zimmerman of Leo, was accompanied not only by her parents but by her husband, Kirk, and sons Michael, 13, and Troy, 7. Michael crawled beneath the branches to cut his first tree, for his grandparents. He then repeated the process for his own family. While the rural appeal of the farm remains constant, the top-selling tree has changed. “Now it’s the Fraser fir,” Reifenberg said, “but 10 years ago Scotch pine was No. 1.” “I think it’s because it’s a softer needle and they have more open spaces,” she said. “And they’re just a really pretty green.” “It’s not economy,” she continued, “because Fraser fir are really expensive trees because they take so long to grow in Indiana.” Of the farm’s 38 small sections of trees, only five are favorable to the Fraser fir. “They’re very, very finicky,” she said. “They grow very slowly, about 4 inches of growth a year. If we can’t grow them here we have to ship them in. It’s either taking up fields for too long or we’re having to pay shipping to get them in.” The farm also offers Scotch pine, white pine, Douglas fir and blue spruce. “We always try to educate our customers, who sometimes say they don’t see many trees,” Reifenberg said. “We’d love to control what God gives us but we can’t do that.” This year, for example, the drought was a factor. “We did lose some seedlings,” she said, “but it will affect our sales seven years from
A moment with Mr. and Mrs. Claus
Photo by Jane Snow
John Clendenen, left, of Leo gets an assist from St. Joe Christmas Tree Farm employee Dane Okleshen of Fort Wayne. Employees of the north-east side farm use machines to shake loose needles from the trees before wrapping the trees in twine. today, seven to 10 years, not this year. But next year we’ll have to double plant.” Though the shop opens after Thanksgiving and closes before Christmas, Reifenberg said it’s really year-round work. “We’re in the fields probably 10 to 11 months a year, and we try very hard to grow a really good product,” she said. Tree enthusiasts will have fewer choose-and-cut options next year. Owners Art and Jacqueline Tilbury said this is the final season for the Devil’s 40 Tree Farm near Churubusco. Owner Jim Alwine said the 2013 season will be the last for the Pines of Leo, near Auburn. Efforts to reach other farms listed on online directories confirmed that several other local farms have closed. Reifenberg made special mention of growers’ participation in Trees for Troops through the Christmas Spirit Foundation,
an arm of the National Christmas Tree Association. Farms across the nation donate trees to military personnel. “A lot of these families, the husband or wife is deployed, and it means the world to them,” she said. Two years ago, a white pine from the St. Joe Christmas Tree Farm was decorated aboard the USS Eisenhower, she said. This year, she said, all the trees donated in Indiana are gong overseas. “FedEx comes in and they ship them for free,” she said. “This is their busiest time of the year and they ship them for free.” She said 20 trees harvested from a downstate farm went to troops in a war zone, where transportation is difficult. “How they got there, I don’t care,” she said. See TREE, Page A2
Veteran proudly accepts diploma after 59 years By Garth Snow gsnow@kpcnews.net
Photo by Jane Snow
Elizabeth Gatchell, 8, of Fort Wayne has her photo taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus outside the Embassy Theatre. Elizabeth is a student at Central Lutheran School in New Haven. Kip Lackey and Marianne Hess donned costumes for the preview of the Embassy’s Festival of Trees on Nov. 21. For more photos of community holiday events, visit fwdailynews.com.
For almost 60 years, Russ Rothgeb’s Army and business acquaintances had no reason to question whether he had finished high school. That changed on Nov. 27, when he found himself holding a freshly minted diploma from the East Allen School Corp., and explaining his honor to five reporters toting four cameras. “Most people who have met me and know me at all presume I graduated from some great college, so I never had to admit the truth,” Rothgeb said the week after that recognition. Rothgeb left Hoagland High School during his junior year, in 1953, to join the Army. He would have graduated in 1954, but that would have to wait. He put high school on hold until long after basic training. It waited
Photo by Garth Snow
Marion “Russ” Rothgeb clutches the high school diploma that he received from the East Allen County School Board on Nov. 27. Rothgeb left Hoagland High School in 1953, to fight in Korea. through his three years in military demolitions in Korea. It waited until after he retired from Wayne Pipe & Supply in 1999. It waited until more than 40 years after Hoagland High School gave way to the
consolidated Heritage High School. Then, Rothgeb learned that he could get a diploma in recognition of his military service. He didn’t have to take more classes. The diploma was award, he said. That award comes from the local school district and from the Indiana Department of Education. The document, itself, carries the name of Marion Rothgeb. But it’s “Russ,” he said. It always has been “Russ.” While he still believes that he made the right choice in 1953, Rothgeb did not take similar pride in his suspended education. “In the back of my mind, I guess I felt like a quitter,” he said. “I have been disappointed, and ashamed.” The school board changed that when public relations liaison Tamyra Kelly presented the diploma to Rothgeb, who See DIPLOMA, Page A4
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