Swimming Hole

Back one barefoot summer I was tagging on with Tim

Already an eighth grader, man; I admired him

He was the first guy in our town to know what it was like

To ride with highrise handlebars

On a black banana bike

So when the streets were oozin' tar

And the heat pressed down like spikes

We'd gather up a posse; cirde 'round our bikes

And go lookin far the man who stole the shade

Tim showed us right where to catch him cold...

At the swimming hole

The swimming hole was relief from the pain

Of a sun that pushed the tar up through main

There wasn't a cooler way to get wet

Like to fizzle the tiame on a hot cigarette

The first dive sent a spark through your skin

A "ough" in your throat and your face in a grin

Running for water; headfirst you'd lunge

Ready to deliver yourself like a sponge

Jeff could do his Monkey Jump

And me my cannonball

Before they'd have their clothes hung up

I'd have drenched them all

Sometimes we'd laugh so hard

Our throats would make no sound

It was easier to be kids when the parents weren't around

Tim stretched out one story

How his dad had lost three toes

He'd been wading out one day bumped a snapper's nose

Biggest sabertooth turtle in the world

And Tim says, "He's still down there in the cold"...

Of the swimming hole

Tim didn't know what he'd just begun

We all glanced at the pool in the glare of the sun

Our imaginations started putting on shows

Of gigantic jaws just an inch from our toes

There were dozens ot stories; with all of the guys

How he was hungry for flesh and had sinister eyes

Though I laughed; my feet never forgot them

In six years of swimming they never touched bottom

So when the streets were oozin' tar

And the heat pressed down like spikes

We'd gather up a posse; cirde 'round our bikes

And go lookin far the man who stole the shade

Tim showed us right where to catch him cold...

At the swimming hole

Sure there was a cement pool at Harmon Park in town

With sanitary dressing rooms and lifeguards strung around

But we preferred the swimming hole

With cottonwoods and stone

Then one day Jeff slipped off the rope

And popped his collarbone

So all the nervous people that worked at city hall

Said it was too dangerous; "That hole will drown you all"

So they brought in seven tubs of rainbow trout

And a sign that said NO SWIMMING in the cold...

Of their fishing hole

Cause their fishing hole was relief from the pain

Of a work ethic worm that laid eggs in their brains

They were looking for ways to recover that time

When they were like us; with a kid's peace of mind

But that no swimming sign didn't phase us at all

It sure looked tine up on Tim's bedroom wall

They ain't made a fence that's too tall to dimb

And you can call us delinquents; but swimming's no crime

So when the night was oozin stars

And the heat pressed down like spikes

We'd gather up a posse; follow our flashlights

And go looking for the man who stole the shade

We'd sneak right down and catch him cold ...

At their fishing hole

'Cause their fishing hole was relief from the pain

Of a night as hot as steam from a train

There wasn't a cooler way to get wet

When that thick muggy air had greased you with sweat

That first dive sent a spark through your skin

Put a "ough" in your throat and your face in a grin

Running for water; .head tirst you'd lunge

Soaking the cool of the pool like a sponge