When I was growing up, we had a very large buckeye tree in our front yard. It was taller than a 2 story house. I know how tall it was because when I would look outside my bedroom window onto the porch roof the buckeye tree still towered above me.
In the fall, the buckeyes that had been growing all spring and summer would begin to open up and fall to the ground along with its shell. It was a big mess to clean up everyday.. And it was my job to help. Sometimes we would have to clean it up twice a day there were so many of the husks and buckeyes laying around the yard.
Many an afternoon I would be outside after school raking away and filling up bushel baskets of them. And an elderly man would be waking down our sidewalk. They called him the Senator, I am not sure why, perhaps he had been a state senator at sometime and was now retired. We always had several lawn chairs in the yard and he would stop and sit down to rest a bit.
He always was dressed in a white shirt, a bow tie, and a nice hat on his head covering up his curly white hair. He was not a big man and quite thin as some elderly people get to be when they are growing old.
As I raked he would chat with me, ask me how school was that day. What I had been up too and sometimes he would tell me a story about days gone by. we would have some very interesting conversations.
About mid September he would pull and old buckeye out of his pocket and toss it into the basket and then ask me to bring him a brand new one, a fresh one. I always picked one of a nice size and he would rub it on his snow white handkerchief he always had in his pocket. He would polish that buckeye till the brown skin glowed like mahogany. Then as he would put it into his pocket he would say.. carry a buckeye all the time and you will never get rheumatism. and then he would smile and say . I wont be back again until next year Ill be heading off to Florida for the warm weather. Now you study hard, and make good grades. And remember hard work never hurt a person. And I would smile and say Yes, sir.
One September he never showed up and I never knew what happened to him. But I remember him well when I close my eyes I can see him rubbing that buckeye and telling me a story. He influenced my life, and left his mark.
What better comment can a person say about his life. if one can say.. about themselves They left a mark on a young life for the better
a nice size buckeye tree but I have seen bigger ones. 
nuts fallend from tree some have popped out of their very spiney shells. 
buckeye still in its shell and ripe to fall
ripe buckeye nuts
