Your childhood sounds like heaven. I was always too ungainly/fat to climb a tree. Though no longer fat, I still haven't acquired the skill. But I love trees - and have planted, or paid for, the planting of, at least three in our own smallish (by Australian standards!) garden, and by various groups like Jersey Trees for Life, and the World Land Trust. There's a very distinctive cedar tree on the coast road near my house, which I am dreading that one day they will cut down. It lost a branch in our recent tornado, which took out a whole load of trees in the east of the island. They take so long to grow, and are so quickly destroyed, whether by fire, wind or chainsaw. It feels like a losing battle, but we must keep planting!