While the oaks at Toomer's corner will ultimately come down, they will not soon be forgotten as the spirit and tradition of rolling Toomer's Corner will live on in many ways. A recently launched website, "Letters to Toomer's," offers members of the Auburn Family an opportunity to say in a letter what Toomer's has meant to them.
The website says it best. "Here's your chance to say thank you--and goodbye--to these beloved members of the Auburn Family."
As one tiger fan said in his letter to the trees, "No time captures the bond of the Auburn Family more than the time spent under the Toomer's Oaks."
Another fan's letter reads, "You served a great purpose, you will be dearly missed. War Eagle forever." The sentiment is continued in another letter, "You may have fallen, but your ability to hold the hearts of everyone who has ever shared your shade will never be forgotten."
Auburn University alumnus Seth Griffin created the website just two weeks ago.
A final rolling of the trees is scheduled for Saturday, April 20, after the A-Day spring football game.
Griffin said he and his wife were talking about bringing their new baby down to Toomer's for the final celebration when the idea for the website came to him as a way for people to have a chance to say goodbye to the beloved trees.
For Griffin, his letter to Toomer's reflects his memories of growing up and spending time at Toomer's with his parents and grandparents.
"My mom passed away about 10 years ago, and I always wished I could take my kids to Toomer's because it's just a place I feel connected to her, and able to share memories of her with my kids--I was upset that I wasn't going to have that anymore," he said.
"The letters to me are a way for everybody to memorialize their own story for whatever their own experiences have been at Toomer's," Griffin said. "It's a way to set those stories in stone so that maybe my daughters and future kids and generations can read the stories and know that there's more to this corner than what they may see."
As for the name of the site, it was no difficult feat for griffin to come up with.
He said the "Letters to Toomer's" name was his initial thought and that it seemed fitting since each person could write a tribute to the trees and share their own individual experience and story about Toomer's.
Growing up going to games and rolling Toomer's Corner, Griffin said he's never known what it's like to not be an Auburn fan.
"I think my first time down was a game when I was 6 months old. My grandparents took me to literally every game, my whole childhood. I don't really have a first memory of going to Toomer's because it was just always a memory," he said.
Anyone who knows anything about Auburn knows about the oaks at Toomer's Corner. Griffin said he loved when friends would visit and he could show them the trees being rolled after a big win.
"It was always a good way to start the night after a game," Griffin said. "Whenever I'd bring people down, I'd say 'you have to see Tiger Walk, and you have to see Toomer's. It was always fun living vicariously through other people, and watching them see it for the first time."
Griffin first heard the trees had been poisoned around the same time his daughter was born. He said he had always looked forward to the opportunity to show his children the trees at Toomer's Corner.
"I took my daughter when she was 8 weeks old from Chicago down to Auburn just to take her to Toomer's Corner in case it wasn't going to last long because at first nobody knew if they were going to die immediately or if it was going to take a while," he said.
Griffin and his wife are expecting their second child in the next couple of weeks and they hope she'll be born in time for them to bring her down for the final celebration in April.
As Griffin poignantly put it, "Her first time (seeing the trees) will be her last time."
Griffin hopes to see new trees rather than a structure replace the oaks.
"It would be fantastic if it could be saplings from the old tree so that there's still some sort of connection there," Griffin said. "But I definitely think the tradition will continue."
Griffin said he plans to keep the website up indefinitely.
"I think people will continue to have their stories to tell," he said.
Those interested in reading the letters or submitting one of their own should go to letterstotoomers.com. Letters submitted may be chosen for publication in a future Letters to Toomer's book.
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