The Extremely Offical David Letterman Tulip Poplar Page
On July 23, 2001, Jeff Meyer, of Famous and Historic Trees, appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to present Dave with a David Letterman Tulip Poplar Tree. The original David Letterman tree is in Indiana, near the Atlas Grocery Store where Dave worked as a teenager. Meyer presented Dave with one of the original tree's offspring that Dave could take home and plant in the yard, and said that he had 25 (I think) more of them to give him. Dave seemed a little disappointed that it was only a single tree and its descendants named for him, and not an entire variety of tree. Still, it's pretty cool.
A few weeks later, the Late Show relaunched its web site with a new design. In place of the Cyberquiz, they now have a Daily Giveaway, which is exactly what it sounds like: they give away something each day. The first thing they started giving away was the David Letterman Tulip Poplar Tree (they said they would give out 15 of them). I entered the Giveaway a couple of times, forgot about it for a while, and then sent in another entry over Labor Day weekend. Well, that last entry did the trick. Wahoo! I won a tree!!
The tree arrived on my doorstep on Saturday, September 22, 2001.
[rubs chin] I remember it as though it just happened...
Dave Tree Update
After struggling to survive for four years in northern Vermont, the Dave Tree needed a new home in a warmer climate. It was clear that it would never thrive here. So, on November 1, 2005, I shipped the Dave Tree to its new adoptive owner, Marilyn Sargent. Full report...
Helen Read