Issac Newton was too narrow in his experience.  He observed a falling apple and became the father of theoretical physics.  Any kid that fell out of a tree learned about a hell of a lot more than gravity.

 

I only fell out of a tree once.  It was enough.  When I was about 9 we had a good size elm in the back yard, near the alley.  One evening I decided to do a recon for a tree house.  We had just seen Swiss Family Robinson.

 

The tree was about 30 inches in diameter at the stump.  The stem was straight and the first branches were about seven feet up.  It was a challenge.  If we actually built the tree house we would also have to build a ladder on the trunk to go with it.  As for the recon, I decided I could shinny up… just this once.

 

It was a tough climb up to the first branches, hugging the tree, inch by inch; fingers and toes in the rough bark.  Once I got up into the branches it was a piece of cake.  There were a couple of nasty, slimy areas of bark where sap was bleeding.

 

It was a tall tree with not a lot of potential for a tree house.  The limbs seemed strong enough but too far apart for my level of construction skill.  I went as far up into the top of the tree as I dared.  The limbs got pretty thin but the view was great.  I didn’t expect the tree to sway so much in the evening breeze.  It was kinda scary.

 

It was getting dark and time for me to start making my way down.  The sparse limbs were more difficult to navigate while descending.  There were places where I had only two points of secure contact when I preferred three; but I managed.

 

Everything changed when I got to the bottom branches.  It was a lot farther to the ground looking down from above the branches than it had been from standing on the ground looking up.  I didn’t have a lot of time to plan a strategy, it was getting dark.

 

Shinnying down looked hazardous.  Finally, I decided to hang from the lowest branch and drop to the ground.  It was more of a drop than I liked, but within the pain threshold.

 

As I lowered myself below the branch, my grip began to fail.  I made a snap decision.  Rather than fall to the ground and try to land on my feet, I swung to the trunk and wrapped my arms and legs around the rough bark.  I slid down the trunk, leaving a lot of hide on the tree.

 

I was raw from my palms to the center of my chest and neck.  The inside of my legs weren’t much better from the ankles to the mid-thighs.  When I hit the ground I went down on my butt so hard it knocked the wind out of me.

 

In all, I fared pretty well.  No bones were broken, but my raw spots felt like they were on fire.

 

Mom was nervous about trees so I needed an alibi.  I told her that I had been playing tag in the street and tripped while running on the pavement.

 

Imagine how much more advanced our knowledge of physics would now be, if Isaac had FALLEN out of the apple tree…