COLUMN: The truth behind the Hula Hoop Tree hoopla!

     The past two weeks have seen quite a bit of commotion over the Amber Hula Hoop Tree. Rumors were running high that Jones County might cut the tree down, when in fact they were just looking for ways to keep visitors safe from traffic.

     Another rumor floating around were a few suggestions on how the hoops first started appearing in the tree. On the Hula Hoop Facebook page, the most common version was the wind had blown one up into the tree.

     Now, I am not a science whiz by any means but I am guessing the it would be near impossible for the wind to blow something that size with a large hole in the middle of it up into the air. Unless it was tornadic type winds.

     And to be honest, why in the heck would a hula hoop even be in close proximity of that tree?

     So, I commented on that post last week that I knew that information to not be factual and I knew the real story. Of course, my post was met with skepticism and even more so since I would not reveal the truth. I reposted that all in good time and that I needed to confirm a few details.

     That comment too was met with skepticism.

     To myself I thought why would I reveal the truth on social media when I can break the news right here in the Monticello Express? So, here is the “rest of the story.”

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     Local racing legend Gus Hughes had been carrying around some hula hoops in his vehicle. They belonged to his wife at the time, Julie Hughes. She had closed up her fitness center and the hoops were used for a class of hers. He thinks they were going to go to Goodwill.

     At some point, Gus got tired of those hoops rolling around in the back seat of their car. Gus decided to move them from their car to his truck one morning. I assume he was going to toss them into the dumpster at work. To be honest, I forgot to ask him what his plan was.

     Every day on his way to work, Gus would pass that old tree that never grew leaves. On this particular day as he approached that old tree, Gus thought to himself, that would be a good place for those hula hoops so he pulled over to the side of the road.

     Gus got out of his truck, took the five or six hoops from out of the back of truck and started launching them up into the sky. He got a few of them to stick, one he told me was darn near to the top of the tree.

     That’s where his story ends but Gus gave me another tip. There was a lady who worked in Monticello at Yogi’s that also drove right by that tree every day, commuting from the Cedar County area. She too was involved in the growth of the Hula Hoop tree.

     Gus told me that this lady noticed the hoops he had thrown up there and shortly after threw some up there herself.

     I had a contact at Yogi’s, Denise Nealson, and Denise confirmed this part of the story to be true. Georgia Sack does drive by that tree every day from Lost Nation. She also kind of acts as a caretaker to the tree, along with Gus and others, and runs the Facebook Hula Hoop Tree page.

     I didn’t want to bother Georgia at work and felt I had enough information to break this story wide open. I believe her and others are pretty passionate about that old girl standing on a curved road, nestled into the entrance of a small Eastern Iowa community.

     So, there you have it, the truth and nothing but the truth, at least my version of the story. Who knows, maybe I’m missing a fact or two but you should get the gist of it. Anyway, the rest is history!