Johnny Appleseed

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Legends say that in the late 1700s a barefoot man with a pot on his head wandered around the American frontier planting apple trees.  People called this crazy character Johnny Appleseed.  But was he a real person or a made up character?  

There are certainly a lot of stories about Johnny Appleseed like this one from Disney.  

It turns out Johnny Appleseed was a real person.  His name was John Chapman and he really did walk around barefoot with a pot on his head.  But more importantly, he was famous for growing apple trees and giving them to settlers.  That is why people called him by the nickname Johnny Appleseed.    

You can read more about Johnny Appleseed and other historic US tree stories at this link.  

Thanks for listening.  this has been Cassie Brenn for fastfoodenglish.blogspot.com.

Trees in Music - Lemon Tree

Here are 2 songs about a lemon tree.  The first one is from an American folk music group called Peter, Paul and Mary.  The second one is by a German pop group named Fools Garden.  Try listening to the videos first without looking at the lyrics.  How much did you understand?  Now look at the lyrics (the words to the song) and listen to the song again.


Lyrics

Lyrics

PS - I had a question about the name Fools Garden?  What does it mean?  I don't know for sure why the band picked this name.  It might have a specific meaning to them.  Often bands like to pick names that sound interesting.   This is a German band and in Europe people refer to the area behind their house that has grass and flowers and other plants in it as a garden.  In the United States we call this a yard.    A fool is someone who acts silly or is not very smart.  The band used to be called Fool's Garden.  With an apostrophe the meaning is a garden belonging to a fool.  But later they removed the apostrophe and now go by Fools Garden.  This changes the name to mean a garden that has fools in it.  

Moon Trees

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The Topic of the week for this week is trees.  And more specifically stories related to trees.  You see trees grow all around us and they live a long, long time.
Because of that they are witness to many events in our lives and in history.  If they could talk, they would tell us many wonderful stories.  And stories are important because they connect us with our culture and history.  So since trees can't talk,I guees I will have to tell you the story of 3 remarkable trees in the US. 

English Central - George Washingotn and the Cherry Tree

Topic of the Week - The Story of Trees

Intro - The Story of Trees by Cbrenn on GoAnimate

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This week we will talk about the history, legends, and stories connected to trees.