In the area where I grew up many woodlots were full of maples. Maple trees also frequently made up the "hedge rows" between fields and along the cuntry roads. Maple trees were a common sight when my parents would "go for a ride" or we were on our way to town or to visit Grandma and Grandpa's farm.
Behind our house was a "hen house" with a large fenced in yard for the chickens extending up the hill. At the top of the hill there was a rather old Grandmother maple tree. When my family no longer kept chickens the area inside the fense was allowed to "grow up to trees". That meant that Grandmother Maple had some children growing up around her and eventually grandchildren grew thiackly all about. They grew up tall and thin. When I was big enough to be trusted with the "nipers" I was allowed to use them to cut a network of trails through this thick growth of 1" to 2" trees. I spent many hours up there on the hill in what I called "The Jungle". It was a place where my imagination could run free. Grandmother Maple had convienently low branches making her an inviting place to climb.
One March Ma decided that she and I would "tap" some of the maples in our front yard so that I could see how it was done. We boiled the sap down on the kitchen wood cook stove. It was fun - until all that steam loosened the paste holding up the wall paper on the walls. It fell off the walls in big chunks. Later that spring I also learned first hand how wall paper was applied!