This article appeared in the September 2014 issue of the United States Bocce Federation Western Sector Newsletter.

This month’s article deals with one of the most basic rules for our planet that has been around since Earth was a spinning blob of molten magma. Gravity. You may wonder why gravity became the subject this month and what it has to do with bocce. This article is really about a story that you did not see on television or read about in the paper and it relates to bocce and gravity.

Rolando Negrini has a very nice bocce court that has a synthetic surface that was installed by the Colleone Company from Italy. Members and guests of the Los Gatos Bocce Club play on the court every fifth Thursday night during the bocce season. The court is near a giant heritage oak tree

that is over two to three hundred years old by some estimates. The tree trunk measures seventeen feet in circumference and the branches cover a great portion of the property and hang out over the bocce court and patio structure. The overhead aerial view shows the size of the tree. A portion of the bocce court is visible in the upper left hand corner of the photo.

On Saturday, July 19^th Rolando hosted a birthday party for his grandson Mason. About forty guests were present and enjoyed the celebration and also participated in some very intense and fun bocce. A week later on Sunday morning July 27^th at about 6:00 AM a massive branch over two feet in diameter broke off and fell into the patio structure and bocce court. The branch alone was as big as some good sized oak trees. The patio structure was demolished. If this had occurred during the party many people would have been killed! If the branch fell on a Thursday bocce night we would have lost many members of the Los Gatos Bocce Club.

Needless to say, we are all thankful that God and the tree chose the time to lose the branch when no one was present! It just shows us how luck can play a big part in the big picture of life. As stated above, this story did not air on TV nor was it covered in the newspaper. You can bet that it would have led the local news and perhaps the national news if people were present at the time that the branch fell to earth due to the matter of gravity!

Rolando is currently working with his insurance company to clear the mess and rebuild the patio structure next to the court. Several arborists have examined the tree and it appears that the tree cannot be saved and will have to come down. He did mention that this is not a killing tree. Forty-five years ago a very large limb on the south side of the tree fell onto tables that were set up for a party. No one was present when that limb fell!