THE STORY OF THE CUP TREE

On Oct. 20, 2008, we went back to the cup tree I'd discovered on Rt. 311 just outside New Castle, VA when we went to Paint Bank last month. My first pics of this tree are shown in my Sept. 19 post.

This time I came prepared to hang my own cup on the tree. People in town had assured us that the owner would not mind. Soon after arriving, the owner came out, waved and then joined us at the tree. We enjoyed talking to him and hearing the story behind his entertaining tree.

The owner's name is Leroy. He said he was reading the southern newspaper called Grit and saw a story about a cup tree that someone out in the southwest had on their property. Leroy thought it was such a neat idea that he decided he would do the same thing!

~ John inserting the cup hook we brought with us for my cup ~

So he went to a Yard Sale and bought about 15 cups and hung them on the tree for starters. From time to time, he would go into The Yard Sale Store in New Castle and buy more cups to add to his tree.

~ Me hanging my tiny mug on the tree ~

The local newspaper got wind of this unusual decoration and featured it in the newspaper. Once that was published, people started leaving cups at the bottom of the tree for Leroy to hang up. Sometimes he'd get 3-4 cups in a single day.

~ My gift to the tree was this child-sized mug ~

He added the date to each cup and hung it on his tree, the collection growing and growing. The front and sides are mostly filled up now, but there's still room left on the back. Sometimes he takes some of the cups down that he added to put up cups others bring him.

~ Leroy admiring his tree's collection ~

According to many of the dates on the cups, he started this project about a year

That's how this cup tree came to be! There's nothing more behind it than that! I think it's a wonderful FUN idea.