Memories of a treehouse

I remember when I was just five waking up from a horrible nightmare. In my nightmare I found myself falling from a huge oak tree and breaking my leg in two places. So you need to understand why I tremble with fear when looking down from a tall building or an open window. Of course such fears were irrational since I lived with my parents on the fifteenth floor of an apartment house in Brooklyn.

Like any other five year old I knew that it was a bad dream and I completely forgot about the dream until my parents and I finally settled into a beautiful neighborhood in New Jersey. My parents had chosen a colonial home with a huge backyard.

In that backyard were two large oak trees encased around a picket fence, and a number of sweet smelling lilac bushes.

My father looked around the backyard and decided that we should build a treehouse. He knew exactly where to put the treehouse; right there between those two oak trees. The limbs on the trees were wide as they were thick, and looked pretty easy for any ten year old to climb.

My father decided to build the treehouse in time to be finished by early that summer. I was so excited about the prospect of having my own little space in the trees until the dream came back to me. I looked up at those two beautiful trees, look down at the ground and decided I did not want my father to build the any kind of treehouse.

" That's okay Dad, you don't have to build a treehouse for me, I like it fine down here where I can keep my feet on the ground."

"That's silly. You could have a real good time in a treehouse. "You could invite all your friends from school and use it as an adventurous time away from us."

I wasn't about to relive that nightmare again and tried to explain that to my fathet." I can't climb a tree and even if I did I would probably fall and really break my leg in two places."

My father was not one to take the word " no" as an answer. He promised that bad dreams don't usually come true.

The next weekend my father started working on the new treehouse. The salesman in the store, where he bought the treehouse had given him not only the best wood to build a treehouse with but also gave him step by step directions for assembling the house. In order to alleviate my fears of having to climb up the tree, he built a set of stairs that wound itself around the trees to the front door of the house. To come out of the house, and reach the bottom of the tree was an exit door where he attached a plastic slide he had bought in a pool store. The slide was strong enough to support my small frame.

When the treehouse was completed, my father and mother took part in decorating the inside of the house. They put curtains on the open windows, built a wall stocked with games, books, and a CD player. They set up a small area in the corner with a set of tables and chairs where my friends and I could eat. It also turned out to be the coolest spot in the house to sit. At the center of the house, was a play area. There was nothing lacking in that treehouse. Before I knew it, the work on the treehouse was ready to be used.

It was on July 1 , a perfect summer day when I invited my best friend from school to join me up in my new treehouse. My best friend's name was Charlotte. We were together since the first grade and live just a few houses away from each other. I felt very comfortable inviting Charlotte to my treehouse because I knew she wouldn't laugh at me, like the other boys in my class would do.

My parents supplied the kitchen with little triangle sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies and Juice drinks so that we could sit and take advantage of the blowing leaves, and the fragrace of the lilac bushes right below us.

I started up the winding stairs, with Charlotte a few sreps behind me. I looked down below me to make sure that she was okay, and noticed the look on her face. She looked just as scared as me, and I thought to myself that I couldn't show her that I was also frightened.. "Don't worry, Charlotte", I said, "dad made those stairs extra strong so nobody would fall out of the tree."

Since we were not quite ready to eat lunch yet we decided to play Pick Up Stix. I was always challenging Charlotte to play this game and she always seemed to beat me even though it was I who taught her how to play. We soon tired of playing that game, when I noticed the Monopoly game on the shelf and we decided to play that game for the next two hours. Of course Charlotte beat me in that game as well.

I wanted to show Charlotte how much of a gentleman I was so when it came time to have lunch I prepared all the sandwiches and goodies and I set up the food like a picnic lunch. I watched her gently pick up her napkin and put it in her lap. I couldn't help but notice that she chewed her food in such a lady-like fashion. Her parents were probably teaching her to behave like a lady, when manners were highly expected of all ladies no matter their age.

After lunch we sat and listened to the CDs my parents had left for me and danced and sang to popular songs of our time. Charlotte was a great dancer and had a good voice as well. We talked for a long time about our own experiences, remembering school trips, birthday parties and other personal stories. I told Charlotte about my nightmare and she was impressed that I even attempted the climb up the stairs ahead of her. I hadn't realized until that day how much I really enjoyed being with Charlotte. So going into the treehouse became a routine we would share every yearuntil we were too old to think of climbing the stairs that led to the treehouse.

When Charlotte and I started using the treehouse that summer I was 11 years old and Charlotte was 10. Since we are so close in age and lived only just a few houses from each other our friendship bloomed and I knew that I wanted to be with Charlotte forever.

One afternoon we were walking in town when we noticed a display of adult tree houses in a department store window and laughed when we remembered the old treehouse. I turned to Charlotte and in a very shy voice asked her to be my wife. She turned around and looked at the treehouse, and than back to me and said "only if you promise that when we have our own children, you will build them one like your father did for you that summer".

If you wonder why I am telling this story is because today is July 1, and Charlotte and were married 50 years today.