Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Get The Gamecock 5 days a week. www. dailygamecock. com State Christmas tree gets awkward haircut THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Call it a South Carolina Chainsaw Massacre. The 40-foot-tall Leyland cypress selected to be the state’s Christmas tree showed up on the State House grounds Wednesday morning, but after trimming branches from the base of the trunk to place it into a 5-foot hole, the tree looked, well, bare bottomed. “It looks kind of sick,” Glenn Plummer, 40, said as he passed by. If the standard is New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza holiday tree, “it won’t come close to that,” he said. It was a sensitive issue for the Columbia Gardening Club, which had devised a camouflage plan within hours. By Thursday morning, eight 16-foot Leyland cypresses were hauled into place in a cover-up that will make it hard to see the gaping holes. “This is just a minor glitch that is going to be worked out,” said the club’s Bibs Hurt. The scrawny, lower portions of the tree — which appear to be remnants of a Charlie Brown Christmas special — are a characteristic of the species, Hurt says. The cedars that usually find a place of honor outside the State House have branches that stretch horizontally, Hurt said, but a Leyland’s boughs shoot for the sky with feathery foliage mostly at the ends. The change was needed because what the Leyland lacks in foliage, it makes up for in branch strength. Stronger limbs were needed to hold new, custom decorations, Hurt said. Up to 6,000 lights were illuminated during the annual Carol Lighting ceremony Sunday night, led by Gov. Mark Sanford. “It’s going to be a very festive holiday tree,” Hurt said. And it could be worse. On Nov. 21, a 75-foot Christmas tree being prepared for Atlanta’s traditional Thanksgiving Day lighting ceremony at a Rich’s-Macy’s store snapped in half as 'crews hoisted it above the building. USC’s Christmas tree will be on the Horsehoe, with an official lighting ceremony scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. ~ ■■■■ i Join Air Force at the University of South Carolina Great careers Pilot Nurse Engineer Lawyer Navigator More GREAT BENEFITS Travel Full Medical & Dental Care Build leadership & Management Skills Starting Salary & Allowances: $35,000 30 Days Vacation with Pay Tuition Assistance for Graduate Degrees Job Security ... and you may be eligible for one of our scholarships! - i Come enjoy a \era Bradley Christmas with us!