Shade

Thats me in the front yard
When I was six years old
At a house downtown
On main street
Mama'd wish we'd never sold
Thats your great grandaddy,
The strongest man I've known

That boxy looking car right there
Is a 37 ford
I bought with my own money
And worked hard to restore
And thats my families handprints
in concrete my daddy poured,
One summer

Dad was a republican
But he sure loved Jack Kennedy
He'd take me his speeches
And raise me up so I could see
And thats the northern oak
We planted in the fall of '63
Its the only thing
Around this town
That didn't grow too fast

That bombshell there beside me 
Is my date for senior prom
She became my best friend,
Thats right, thats your grand mom
And thats me and my brother
Headed off the vietnam
One summer

Daddy saw the need for war
But believed that wars were never won
He said he never understood those words
until he lost a son
Thats the weeping willow 
We planted downtown in '71
Its the only thing around this town
That didnt grow to fast
As men grow old
Its grows strong
And times rolls past

If a tree falls in the forest
Does it make a sound?
A tree like my daddy does,
He was like the redwood of this town
And that's the American Elm we planted
With his ashes spread around

And one day when the kingdom comes
He'll sit and talk with his two sons
And you child underneath its shade