American Notes LANDSCAPING

Lawrence Tero left the Chicago housing project to make his fortune. He came home famous, rich and decorated with gold chains, a Mohawk haircut and a new name: Mr. T. The star of TV's The A Team moved into a mansion in the leafy suburb of Lake Forest. Now Mr. T's name is mud. In a community proudly known as Tree City, U.S.A., Mr. T has been keeping chain saws whining to cut down some 100 or so trees. Allergies, said a spokesman. But Mr. T, surveying his emergent pasture in red shorts and T shirt, said he is doing it for the & exercise. A chain saw, he told a passerby, is "music to my ears." Countered Neighbor Betsy Kitzerow: "I just could not believe somebody could be that destructive to something that took God maybe 60 years to grow."