This former politician has been growing mighty oaks from tiny acorns

Lindsay Thomas. Photo via The Washington Post.

From The Washington Post:

“Here’s a red oak that’s dropped,” Lindsay Thomas said Wednesday morning as we walked on Capitol Hill near the Taft Carillon.

He bent down and picked up the end of a branch, splaying out its dozen or so leaves. Then he palmed a few acorns. Or, as Thomas says, “akerns.”

“Akerns” is how they pronounce it in Wayne County in southeastern Georgia where Thomas, 79, grew up. It’s the part of Georgia that sent him to Congress for 10 years, from 1983 to 1993.

“There’s two families of oak: whites and reds,” he explained. “All the reds have a pointed leaf at the end. White oaks have lobes.”

Trees have always been important to Thomas.

“I grew up in the woods,” he told me.