The Beech Tree

"Absolutely FantasticDefinitely five stars. I'd give ten if that were an option. The characters were so real, I could see myself in each of them. The trains, the places, the philosophy, and the tree, were so poignant. I cried, laughed, and cried again. A truly excellent book. This is the kind of book that makes you better for having read it." -- Amazon Review"This sweeping novel follows the lives of several well-developed characters who have as common touch point a great beech tree on the shores of the Great Lake. The interwoven lives of generations of soldiers, baseball players, and activists tell tales of love lost and regained, and opportunities that go by to be recaptured.... A timely book of redemption and a reminder that all is not ever lost." -- Amazon ReviewThe Beech Tree introduces you to the lives of those who visited the tree and shared their lives, their loves, their hopes and dreams, beneath the tree’s dark green canopy … and their curious, inexplicable connection to one another.The readers are introduced to Johnny and Margo, the first characters to visit the tree, just before Johnny ships off to fight in The Great War in 1918. We follow Johnny and Margo, Johnny's lifelong, albeit socially taboo, friendship with his friend, “Bullet Joe” Rogan, a pitcher in the Negro Leagues.Johnny introduces his granddaughter, Debby, to the tree in 1957, an era of bobby socks, roller-skating carhops and Elvis music, and Debby meets Mason in 1967's Summer of Love, just before Mason is drafted to fight in Vietnam.For 30 years, Debby wonders whatever became of the boy who changed her life. Then she finds out.

Don has been a writer most of his life, including a series of poems for his daughters from their tooth fairies, to writing advertising strategies, and even a headline or two, to trade journal articles, a book on real estate, and curricula for real estate training classes. In 2007, his work "Down Boekeloo Road," was published in the "Best Poems and Poets of 2007."