A Special Tree Gets Trucked To Beantown
JORDAN BAY, NS. — For almost half a century around these parts, the name Hicks has been synonymous with fuel. Owner-operator Clarence Hicks, who passed away in June, was Irving Oil’s gas-delivery guy.
This week, the memory of Clarence Hicks will definitely be rekindled by scores of Nova Scotians, New Englanders and many others when a 60-ft-high white spruce tree belonging to his truck-driving son Paul becomes the province’s official “Christmas Tree For Boston.”
Every year for the past 50, the Province of Nova Scotia has presented a large tree to the people of Boston in thanks for the Americans’ help after the 1917 Halifax explosion. About 2,000 people were killed and hundreds hurt and left homeless in the tragedy, and Boston — which is tied closely with Nova Scotia on cultural, economic and familial levels — was quick to provide medical personnel and supplies.
The tree gets erected and decorated in that city’s Boston Common.
Three years ago, the province’s official tree scout first approached Paul and Jan Hicks about their spruce.
“It’s quite an honor that out of the 47 million trees in the province, they chose one of ours,” Hicks Jr. told todaystrucking.com. “Our children Matthew and Colin are really excited, too. This is a big thing for the whole community.”
The Hicks have a five-tree stand on their property and three of them are being felled for this project.
The second tree’s branches will be used to wrap the main tree for its trip south and the branches from the third go to fill in spaces in the erect tree’s foliage, once it is installed in downtown Beantown.
“They’re all near the end of their life cycle anyway,” Hicks says.
On Tuesday, Nov. 13, with more than 300 school children, Mounties, citizens and dignitaries from across the province on hand, a crew from the Ministry of Natural Resources will cut the trees and load them up for a truck ride to Boston, about 1,200 km south.
Said Maurice Smith, acting Minister of Natural Resources: “On behalf of the province, I thank Paul and Jan for providing this year’s remarkable tree to represent Nova Scotia’s gratitude to Boston.”
Paul Hicks is an owner-operator with RST Transport, a division of Irving.
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