Sweet home Auburn...

In the last several weeks, members of the Auburn family have been visiting just to say goodbye to the trees.

At the entrance to the University are two large oak trees. Across the street sits Toomer's Drugs. Overall, the area is known as "Toomer's Corner" and when we celebrate an athletic victory, Auburn rolls the trees, the traffic light, the street signs and pretty much anything that stands still. After a football win, the entire block (and several blocks past Toomer's Corner) is filled with fans and toilet paper. Kids ride on their daddy's shoulders shouting War Eagle the whole time. Couples throw a roll and then share a kiss under the now white trees. And for those glorious moments, there are no strangers. Only generations of the Auburn family sharing in a tradition of excitement and child-like joy.

But now, the trees are slowly dying. An over-zealous fan of our in-state rival university thought it would be an awesome idea to kill the Toomer's trees and thus, our tradition.

He's out of jail on bond last I heard.

And since he proudly announced his crime on a sports talk radio show, Auburn folks have been making the journey back to the "loveliest village on the plains" to get what might be their final pictures with the old trees. My family is no exception. My SIL took my nephews down a couple of weeks ago. Mom and I took Pumpkin down last Friday.

It was Aubrey Kate's first visit to Auburn. Of course, I dressed her in her Auburn onesie and navy skirt. Mom and I wore our orange and blue as well. We ate lunch, shopped in the bookstore, drank some famous Toomer's Lemonade, visited the museum and took lots of pictures. It is likely our daughter will never get to roll the same trees her dad and I did while we were in school. And thanks to the amount of poison the guy dumped in the soil, it's very likely none of the shrubs and plants anywhere near Toomer's will be the same. They may all die.

But our love for Auburn and for our family will not. Hopefully, Aubrey Kate will decide to attend Auburn just like her grandparents, aunts, uncles and parents did.

If not... she better have a good reason why.

And a scholarship.

War Eagle!