I Always Heard About it...

Did you have a tree house when you were little? I never did but of course always heard about them. I don't think I would have really wanted one anyway because I would have been too afraid to climb that high up a tree! Now that I think about it, none of my friends had one either. Tree houses were things that children in movies and television shows had in their backyard, not the boy that lived down the street who I knew from the bus stop.

This particular tree house as been around for years and I pass it nearly everyday. I am always amazed how big it is, yet appears to sit very sturdily amongst the branches - with a little help from the pillars, of course! This children's playground is almost the size of some apartments I have seen. Living would be cramped, but at least you would have some nice views.

The funny thing is that in all of the years I have passed by this tree house I have never once seen anyone actually playing in or around it. I wonder if the children who used to hang out the windows or swing from the poles have long since grown up and moved away...or maybe it was built with the hope of someone laughing for hours while sitting on the balcony, only to find the person had lost interest by the time the project was finished. Maybe the project was never finished...I have never been able to get close enough so I can't truly tell whether or not "construction" has officially ended.

Occasionally I think, "Maybe it would have been fun to have a tree house growing up" since it is known to be a staple of youth. Maybe I would have enjoyed climbing the tree and hanging out in a private fort that was designed by my friends and I...all of the kids on TV seemed to have fun when they played in tree houses! How could they be so iconic of youth yet no one I knew ever had one...they had sandboxes but never tree houses; swings that took us soaring towards the sky and slides that brought us racing back to the ground but never a tree house.

Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that there were many children just like me...they were a little skeptical of a structure built into the trunk of a tree that would sway when a strong gust of wind blew by. With that in mind, I don't feel as though I missed out on anything during my childhood. I will just enjoy the view of this tree house, instead, as I pass by daily in my own pursuit of enjoyment!

That's the Golden Perspective...what's yours?