34. Woman in a Pool

Dan Reeder. I don't know much about him. I know he was signed to John Prine's record label and put his first album out when he was around 50 (if the internet is to be be believed). He has some hilarious songs and some that fall into the simple reflective style that I love so much about John Prine. This song is one of those and the simple imagery fills me with nostalgia. I love when a song takes me back and fills me with that wistful feeling.  My only complaint is that I want it to be longer. Two minutes is not enough of this song. I guess it is a fitting parallel for life. It is too short, too fast and ends too soon, but at least with songs you can put it on repeat. 

 I stumbled across this song at the right time I guess. My kids are starting another school year after a much too fast summertime. One is in 6th grade and is entering that phase of life where kids stop being nice and the assholes emerge from under the rocks of their insecurities. I am excited for her and I am sad to know that the end of innocence is lurking somewhere out there.  My littlest is in 4th grade and not even so little anymore. I just don't know where the time went. They are blessed with the optimism of a life just starting to be lived. New friends, happiness, hope and excitement for every next step. So much to be discovered with no sense of the beautiful pain that love and living can bring.  This is how it should be. They can let my wife and I do the worrying about the potholes and hurdles that growing up put in your path. They can make the memories that songs like this pull up from deep inside decades after running through a sprinkler or playing in the pool. They will have their time to look back.

As for me, well, I just completed another lap around the sun and like it or not the completion of those laps makes you stop and look back and where you've been and where you are heading. Listening to this one took me back and floated in at the right point in time.  I can smell the chlorine and the barbecue. I can vividly feel the grass on my wet bare feet.  I can remember when I was young. When there was nothing but happiness in my world. Nothing but optimism. Nothing but time. 

"What I wouldn't give to be young again" he sings. 

I'll raise a glass to that. 

"when there was no such thing as a waste of time

pick the wet grass off of your bare feet

and when you're done lean up against

a tree and watch the cars go up

and down the street

what would I'd give to be young again "