The Tree

I can still remember how it felt to climb the tree in granddaddy's yard. I was afraid to climb too high but I managed to grab hold of the lowest branch with both hands and march upwards on the tree trunk until I was able to pull myself into a sitting position on the branch. Sometimes if I was feeling particularly brave, I would go one branch higher to reach the best seat in the yard. It was a great place to spy on family, think about problems, or my favorite thing....pretend to be somebody else going somewhere else.


Granddaddy, my Uncle Frank and my Uncle Sonny were well known auto mechanics in the Centerhill area. All kinds of people with sick cars, trucks, an occasional tractor often showed up at granddaddy's. Either he or one of the uncles would work their magic and get them back on the road. People came and went and I watched while perched on a branch in a tree in granddaddy's yard.


I began my lifelong career as a drama queen right smack dab in the middle of a tree. It was my thinking place. I would think about whatever problem I was struggling with whether it was a bad grade, issues with friends from school or something more serious like a kitchen that was completely out of RC Cola's. I would reflect on days past, play different scenario's out in my head and think of snappy comebacks that I couldn't think of earlier in the day ( then I prayed for another opportunity to use them). I worried about things from minor to major. Everything was a groundbreaking, life changing, earth shaking, woe is me kind of big deal! I spent a lot of time thinking, and thinking, and thinking some more while sitting on that tree branch in the tree in granddaddy's yard.


Sometimes I would climb up, sit on the branch, lean back into the solid trunk of the tree and let my mind go where my body would never go. I was a dancer, a singer, an actress, a lawyer, a princess. I flew on airplanes, was filthy rich, ate at fancy restaurants, took vacations, had my own apartment all while sitting on a tree branch in granddaddy's yard!


 I still love people watching. I still over-think things and worry (yes! I know it's sinful but I was born that way! SERIOUSLY!). I have reigned in my imagination. It's been at least a month since I pretended to be a princess and these days I am pretty happy being at home. But, I would love to climb that tree one more time, lean back, look out over the property where I grew up and see my granddaddy one more time.