"Crooked Tree" Crooked Tree by bsfreeloader

Crooked Tree Village is located a little more than 30 miles up the Northern Highway from Belize City. It is a small fishing and farming village with approximately 700 residents. The people are friendly and accepting of strangers and are quick to say hello.

The Patsy Cline house.

My first morning in Crooked Tree I went for a walk. On the outskirts of town, I came across a house that was blaring a Patsy Cline record. As I walked by the house, with laundry hanging on the line to dry, and a dog, some chickens, and a horse in the yard, my mind drifted and for a moment I felt as if I was in Oklahoma in the early 1960s. As I continued down the road, careful to avoid the cow patties and horse manure, the cacaphony of tropical birds disappeared and all I could hear was Patsy Cline and the dream of being in Oklahoma became even more real. But as Patsy Cline's voice slowly faded away, and I heard a woman from the house yelling in Kriol, I remembered just how far from Oklahoma I was.

The Crooked Tree Village Christmas tree.

After spending an afternoon canoeing around the lagoon, I made my way slowly back to Sam Tillett's hotel. Along the way, I passed the village community center, a one room building no larger than the typical one-car garage. A man popped out of the building and asked me, "You gonna come back later tonight?" I said, "For what?" He responded, "For the lighting of the community Christmas tree. Actually, the relighting. The cows ate the first one." I laughed, prompting him to smile and say, "That's pretty funny, isn't it?" A few hours later, I, along with most of the rest of the village, showed up for the lighting of the community Christmas tree. It was a grand affair, with caroling, much laughter, and some passing out of gifts to the village children. There was even an appearance by the scrawniest Santa Claus I've ever seen. All the kids seemed to know who was dressed up as Santa and fell over laughing when he came running out of the community center.