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Jim Hoehn: Music

Tree House Peace of Mind

(Jim Hoehn)
Jim Hoehn

I remember one-speed bikes, skipping rocks and climbing trees
Sandlot baseball, lemonade, a couple of skinned-up knees
But the reverie of the memory ends when someone pages me
And I think back to the time when stair by wooden stair I'd climb
Up, up, up until I'd find, a tree house peace of mind
I'd go up, up, up until I'd find, a tree house peace of mind

We were standing in our backyard, my dad's looking up at the tree
Said branches like that without a fort seems like a waste to me
So with some 2x4s and a plywood floor, squeaking hinges on the old trap door
Takes me back to the time when stair by wooden stair I'd climb
Up, up, up until I'd find, a tree house peace of mind
I'd go up, up, up until I'd find, a tree house peace of mind

     It was a world of imagination, limits we had none
     Cowboys, combat, cops and robbers, the good guys always won
     The afternoons when my sister's friends were gettin' in my hair
     There's nothing quite like a water balloon dropped from way up there
     Dropped from way up there

I was driving through my hometown and swung by our old place
Sure enough there's a treetop fort that had seen its better days
One little kid with a hammer and nail, another one hauling up a rope and pail
Takes me back to the time when stair by wooden stair I'd climb
Up, up, up until I'd find, a tree house peace of mind
I'd go up, up, up until I'd find, a tree house peace of mind

Made a couple stops on the way back home, had the kids look in the trunk
Looked like a pile of old scrap wood and secondhand hardware junk
But to the kids and me and the backyard tree, a third-generation legacy
Brings them up to the time now stair by wooden stair they climb
Up, up, up until they find, a tree house peace of mind
They go up, up, up until they find, a tree house peace of mind

The kids say, "Dad, aw pretty please, forget about those achin' knees"
 What the heck, one more time, stair by wooden stair I climb
Up, up, up until I find, a tree house peace of mind
I go up, up, up until I find, a tree house peace of mind

And there's nothing quite like a water balloon, dropped from way up there