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Writing Memoir Workshop

January 19, 2019 by Jim Potter 20 Comments

The Honking Tree

If you live or have lived west of Wichita, Kansas, then you might recognize this tree that grows on the south side of K96, a couple of miles west of the Maize exit.

Some locals refer to it as the “Honking Tree.” Others remember late nights of drinking beer when a pit stop was required in order to empty full bladders. They called it the “Peeing Tree.”

Still others recall it as “The Ten-Mile Tree,” and “The Kissing Tree.”

I’m a writer and author who is currently developing a workshop on the topic, “Memoir Writing.”

While I’ve written a police memoir, people use their memories to write in many genres–poetry, prose, posts, etc.

I’m asking for help from readers like you. Do you know the Honking Tree? Do you have any memories to share with me? I just had a friend reply to a Facebook post. He said that his family used to honk as they drove by the tree until he was in college. He also said that he was “a superstitious regular.”

If you don’t know the Honking Tree, you can still be a big help to me. Do you have a memory to share? Or, do you have an interesting superstitious memory? I’m curious.

If you’d like to participate in this inquiry, you can respond to this post via smailmail, email, Facebook, or Messenger. Please include contact information.

Jim Potter, PO Box, Hutchinson, KS, 67504-1172; jim@copintheclassroom.com; 620-899-3144.

I continue to share many of my memories on my website, blog, and podcast.

What’s one of your memories? 

Until next time, happy writing and reading!

 

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Related

Filed Under: Blog posts Tagged With: Cop in the Classroom, Jim Potter, Memoir Writing, Taking Back the Bullet, the Good Luck Tree, the Honking Tree, the Kissing Tree, the Peeing Tree, the Ten Mile Tree, Under the Radar, writing memoir, writing workshop

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    January 19, 2019 at 11:12 am

    Good luck, Jim. You should find some very interesting stories and experiences doing this type of research. Look forward to reading your next project.

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      January 19, 2019 at 12:12 pm

      Thanks for your encouragement! Just heard that one person referred to the landmark as “The Ten Mile Tree,” while another said, “We called it ‘The Kissing Tree'”.

      Reply
  2. Lois says

    January 19, 2019 at 2:42 pm

    When we moved here in 1980 we knew we were moving to prairie flatlands. Every other state we had lived in had many trees in an
    extensive variety of species and ages. We were told that along the drive to Wichita there was ONE tree and the tradition was to pay it homage and recognition by honking. So we did. If we got distracted by cars, the kids would be sure to let us know as it was approaching.

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      January 19, 2019 at 4:37 pm

      Lois, what a beautifully written contribution to the conversation! Yes, we are a special plains people in that we revere a single tree, one we find remarkable. Jim

      Reply
  3. Jim Potter says

    January 19, 2019 at 4:40 pm

    Attached is something Author Steve Miller wrote for his book, Huddle Up Hutch: A History of Salthawk Football, 1902-2016.

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      January 19, 2019 at 4:57 pm

      The link I was given to Steve Miller’s exceptional book shares some history of “The Good Luck Tree.” When Steve was a first-year assistant football coach for Hutchinson High School, the bus driver carrying the football team to Wichita’s North HS suddenly laid on the horn for a series of honks. Steven wondered what was going on as everyone on the bus was looking out the windows on the right side of the bus. He soon learned that all the sports teams honked at the tree for good luck. The football teams honked seven times, probably because a touchdown and extra point is worth seven points.

      Reply
  4. Jim Potter says

    January 19, 2019 at 7:38 pm

    I cannot believe what I learned today. I’ve checked it out. It really exists. There’s a Facebook group page that focuses on the Good Luck Tree. It has over 5,000 followers! That’s right! It’s called “We always honk at the lucky tree outside of Wichita!” Here’s the address: https://www.facebook.com/groups/107305225956210/

    Reply
  5. Tracy says

    January 20, 2019 at 12:49 pm

    First I have heard of this tree, but I am commenting to follow along!

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      January 20, 2019 at 1:46 pm

      Tracy, I’m gathering examples of people’s memories and then in the workshop I’ll transition from memories to memoirs. Stay tuned! Jim

      Reply
  6. Miriam Iwashige says

    January 20, 2019 at 3:48 pm

    I’ve heard that this was a post office tree during the time the land was being settled by pioneers. IOW, travelers through the area left messages here for other travelers. Only a highly visible landmark tree would have worked well for a post office.

    Within the last decade, when my mother had heart surgery in Wichita, we learned over many trips to and from the hospital there exactly how many minutes of travel time we had left when we reached the honking tree on our way to the hospital. I presume this landmark has served a similar purpose for others who frequently travel this route. For our family, this time marker was a new “use” for the honking tree.

    I’m looking forward to the memoir instruction.

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      January 20, 2019 at 9:19 pm

      Sure makes me wonder about the age of the tree. Now you’ve got me wondering about post offices or at least places letters were dropped off and picked up.

      Reply
  7. Karen says

    January 21, 2019 at 7:11 pm

    I love trees. Trees are where I find my solace. Everyone knows my deep sadness when one has to be brought down. Especially the Cottonwood tree which, with the leaves’ movement in the breeze, whispers comfort, shouts mirth, and bears its massive trunk and huge branches – steadfastly anchored by deep roots in the earth. So this beloved tree caught my attention early in life and I named it the kissing tree long before I was aware of the fact that it was famous. Little by little I realized it was a favorite of many people.
    My ritual is to honk six times – once for each of my grandchildren. When they came to visit from the west coast and from the east coast, I told them it was known as a famous tree – in fact if they would google “Honking Tree” they didn’t even have to tell the world wide web a location, and it would pop up.
    So yes, I love that tree. By comparing the size of the trunk to some that have fallen on our property (we counted rings) it could be 200 years old. Maybe it was a seedling nearly a half century before Kansas’ statehood!

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      January 21, 2019 at 7:25 pm

      Karen, thank you for sharing your love of trees! It’s also quite evident that you are an excellent writer as you communicate passionately. Now I know another reason, another story, of why a driver might honk six, not seven times. Also, I’m beginning to believe that the Honking Tree can really be older than Kansas Statehood. Just amazing. Jim

      Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      January 21, 2019 at 9:24 pm

      If you’re not a member of the Kansas Authors Club, you ought to be.

      Reply
      • Jim Potter says

        January 23, 2019 at 6:49 am

        I just learned another name for the Honking Tree or Good Luck Tree or Kissing Tree or Ten-Mile Tree. Some people, especially those on the way to casinos, call it the Bingo Tree.
        Our tree even got politicians involved to help save its life! Back when K-96 was being expanded into a four-lane highway, Jan Pauls, D-Hutchinson at the time, fought in Topeka to get a Safe Tree Order so that the tree would be protected and the highway would go around it. Pauls knew how important the tree was to her constituents.

        Reply
        • Jim Potter says

          January 23, 2019 at 8:52 am

          TRESS by Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)
          I THINK that I shall never see
          A poem lovely as a tree.
          A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
          Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast:
          A tree that looks at God all day,
          And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
          A tree that may in Summer wear
          A nest of robins in her hair;
          Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
          Who intimately lives with rain.
          Poems are made by fools like me,
          But only God can make a tree.
          “Trees” was originally published in Trees and Other Poems. Joyce Kilmer. New York: George H. Doran Co., 1914

          Reply
  8. Barbara says

    January 23, 2019 at 6:34 pm

    I can remember it being called The Wishing Tree. I was 5 years old. I can remember Mom and Dad putting us 10 kids plus my parents in the car here in Hutchinson. We would drive to Wichita to see my grandma Johnson. When we would get close to The Wishing Tree, my Dad would say we’re almost to the Wishing Tree. So the car was so quiet that we could hear a pin drop with each one of us making our Wish before passing. When I got married I told my 2 kids the same thing. Then I asked my dad why we would always say a Wish at The Wishing Tree. Dad smiled and said, that was the only few seconds that mom and l had peace and quiet in the car. And now I’m 67 yrs. old and still saying it.

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      January 23, 2019 at 6:41 pm

      Barbara, I love this! You have passed this on to another generation for sure. Do you remember any of your wishes?

      Reply
      • Karen says

        January 24, 2019 at 1:37 pm

        “The wishing tree” — I like that the very best!
        It’s going to be my wishing tree from now on!

        Reply
        • Jim Potter says

          January 24, 2019 at 3:42 pm

          Yes, I much prefer the Wishing Tree.

          Reply

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What People Are Saying

Denise Low, author of Jackalope (Red Mountain Press)

Jim Potter is a cop, retired, but he brings deep understanding of this job to his novel Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery. This layered novel has literary dimensions as characters explore crisis situations. Congratulations to this fine writer for his debut novel.

Rebecca from Proud Police Wife

Taking Back the Bullet is an emotional, yet captivating novel. Jim Potter does a superb job of intertwining each character and putting their individual identities on display. All law enforcement storylines are a true reflection of Potter’s years as a police officer because they are realistic and relatable. This is a book I highly recommend.

Dennis Perrin, educator

Masterful storytelling, exquisite character development, so real as to HURT and HOPE, a real page turner. Begs for stage, screenwriters, and visual episodic development a.k.a. TV series . . . Thanks Jim Potter for telling it like it is AND providing us visions of how it could be. Well done!

Rebecca Schillaci

As a former law enforcement officer, I found the story very relatable as it details the life of a law enforcement officer and the struggles some face throughout their careers. . . Taking Back the Bullet is a journey of understanding, respect, and forgiveness . . .

Sheryl Remar

I enjoyed the different stories of this book because Tom, James, and Suanna, the three main characters, represent in their own way the different struggles with themselves and society’s idea of what is normal.

John & Cindy Morrill, 20 years Air Force retired, 17 years law enforcement

I enjoyed your book. When I am looking for a new read, I always read the first page, last page and choose a random page somewhere in the middle before I decide to buy it. You had me on all three pages. I also like reading a book where you can relate to the characters and the settings in which they live and work. It makes a story more realistic if you can say, I am familiar with the area; I know where that town is or I have traveled that street. It was easy to relate to the characters. In one way or another, I have met them all somewhere in my journeys.

Judy Hawk

. . . I was impressed with the Native American information as well as the depth of character development . . . .

Wynona Winn, PhD, retired school superintendent

Three main characters walk different paths but with the same destination – each coping with his or her self-discovery, self-identity, and self-realization. Much like their earlier counterparts – Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield – their journeys are often joyous, often tedious and often tragic.

Diana Dester

Good story line, building the characters along the way. Great job!

Deb Theis, LSCSW, clinical therapist/hypnotherapist

Jim Potter has done it again! After his book, Cop in the Classroom: Lessons I’ve Learned, Tales I’ve Told, Jim has written another great work. In Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, Jim Potter takes us on an insightful journey into the lives and relationships of numerous characters. Jim is such a talented storyteller that the reader quickly becomes immersed and has a ‘bonding experience’ with each of the characters, feeling their joy, fear, passion and pain. Jim’s novel speaks to the empowerment of persistence with the characters as they work through their trials. As a therapist, I appreciated the heartfelt struggles from each of the characters and their diversity. I also found value in the novel’s understanding of society’s misunderstanding of both mental health and other conditions in which people struggle. The novel contains rich exposure to various realities that many of us do not know about . . . but should. When I finished this captivating novel, I was wanting to read the sequel! It was an honor and a wonderful, mesmerizing experience reading this book. Congratulations, Jim!

Jane Holzrichter

I finished it last night around midnight. What a great piece of work. It kept me intrigued all the way to the end.

Sean McArdle, Winchester, England

Retired police officer Potter’s novel centres on very disparate characters and through the tried and tested means of gradually introducing each one, builds a sense of anticipation about what is going to happen to them. This often used methodology is not easy to do well but is superbly handled by Potter who knows how to give enough detail to bring the characters to life, yet not too much so as to slow down the pace of the developing story. A climactic event affects the main characters and it is at this point Potter’s deep knowledge of people and police procedures really hits home; page by page we read how a seemingly simple, though terrible occurrence, can have huge consequences. To Potter’s credit the story does not have a completely conclusive or simplistic ending. Instead it leaves the reader thinking about how the events of a single minute can affect lives forever. I would whole heartedly recommend this book not as a crime novel or even as a novel about crime but as a beautiful and positive affirmation about what it is to be human and how ultimately it is relationships which matter more than events.

Morgan Penner

Taking Back the Bullet is a novel that provides the reader with a window into the world of law enforcement. As the novel unfolds, the reader is able to see how split-second decisions alter the lives of the main characters in the story. Taking Back the Bullet also explores how humanity is impacted by mental illness. One of my favorite quotes from Taking Back the Bullet is “We’re all just a critical moment from being disabled or mentally ill, and we don’t want to think about it.” The novel also provides the reader an opportunity to gain a better understanding of how mental illness impacts the individuals, their family, friends, and society. Taking Back the Bullet is a story of forgiveness and overcoming life’s struggles and tragedies.

Steve Becker

I’m impressed. It was an excellent read. . . . I hope you continue with more projects in the future.

Larry Kruckman, anthropologist

Jim Potter displays ethnographic skills in Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, creating vivid scenes and fascinating characters. The Greeks had a word for subcultures and people’s behavior: ‘ethos,’ or ‘ways of being.’ In colorful, sometimes marvelous detail, this novel captures various people and settings . . . the ethos of rural Kansas: a jail, art fair, powwow, rehab center, courtroom, albinos, and even someone in the throes of postpartum depression. So detailed are the descriptions that they must be drawn from the author’s personal experience. Besides the artfully created characters such as the struggling jailer and husband Tom Jennings, local artist Jesse Thomas, and Native American Joe Morningcloud, there is a tight story line that grabs your attention and won’t let go. Human tensions, love, conflict, joys and sorrows are all there. Magically, all the many pieces come together in a final crescendo, giving hope that even when we find ourselves in big trouble we can survive. This is a novel I highly recommend!

Larry Kruckman
Anthropologist
Karleen Wilson-Moon

Terrific story relevant to today’s social issues . . . well written . . . likable characters . . . insightful perspective from an insider in law enforcement.

Karleen Wilson-Moon

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