E. Sprague Tree Lots Bustle With Business
East Sprague is the perfect place for a Christmas tree lot.
It’s not that Sprague is especially holiday-like or anything. It’s all fast food and car dealers. But spend a morning at a tree lot, and it doesn’t take long to see the similarity to the latter.
Wheeling, dealing and tire (or in this case, trunk) kicking are all part of the holiday flora trade.
Charlie Scarano knows the drill well. This is the eighth year he’s set up shop in an old gas station at 9506 E. Sprague, sandwiched between a Wendy’s and a KFC. His 20-year-old nephew, Roger Briley, drives up each weekend from the University of Montana to help.
Scarano lives in Montana, but was born in the Valley. His dad owned Dishman Trailer, and the family sold trees there for almost 40 years.
The rest of the year, Scarano runs a vet clinic with his wife, but when the holiday season rolls around, he heads back to the Valley. He could sell the greenery in Montana, but this is a tradition.
“The same people come back every year,” he said. “A lot of them want to dicker prices. It’s fun.”
On Saturday, the wind sliced through his gray Cougar sweatshirt but he couldn’t run inside the weathered garage. Business was too good.
Some shoppers knew exactly what they wanted.
“That’s it! That’s the tree!” Pam Dahmen hollered to the tree man. She pointed at a noble fir, and Scarano and Briley wrestled the wriggling green giant to the ground. Pam’s husband Mike got up to help. Their son, 9-year-old Marc, watched.
The Dahmens were buying two. One for them, one for Grandpa.
The trees had to be big and bushy, Pam said. No Charlie Brown models. They also had to reach the ceiling. This one certainly would.
“It takes three of you guys to move it, how am I going to get it in the house?” she asked. No worries, Mom. Last year, the family replaced their sliding door with a big French door - mainly to get their idea of a tree that’s tops through the entry. Now that’s holiday hardcore.
“We had big trees since we were little,” Mike said.
“Big is big,” Scarano mused. “The bigger the better.”
Some trees were sprayed pink, white or blue. Fads come and go on sales lots, auto or evergreen. Pink trees and minivans were the rage yesterday, now it’s blue trees and sport utility vehicles.
Kristi Falco and her three kids wanted basic, au naturel green. She tore her way through the concretefloored forest. Her crew mutinied, going their own way.
Grant, 13, and Tyler, 12, all baseball caps and black windbreakers, looked over a tree propped against a trailer. Colby, 3, came tottering after, walking kind of zig-zagged like little kids do.
Mom found just the tree amid the foliage - another noble fir. “Boys! Boys!” she called. Scarano had a sale on the line, so he came running, too. He tossed the red twine-laced tree on its side and got it ready to move.
Other sales take a little more time, extra finesse. That’s when the hunting yarns come in handy. “There was this huge white-tail, biggest one I’d ever seen…”
About then a truck drove up, emptying out four men. They were reporting for work - things were getting busy. When Scarano needs more help, he hires as many as nine folks from the Union Gospel Mission. He told the men there were some trees to haul around back.
Back to business. The huntingstory customer picked out his tree. Scarano pounded two wooden planks in an “X” at the base, then set the tree upright. He gave it a few shoves to the left, trueing it out. “There,” he said.
Like most tree dealers, Scarano aims to please.
After all, there are no tree trade-ins.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MEMO: Valley Snapshots is a regular Valley Voice feature that visits gatherings in the Valley. If you know of a good subject for this column, please call reporter Ward Sanderson at 927-2154.