Imaginary Wars

Behind the house where I lived

Back when I was a kid

I played G.I. Joe beneath the tall pine trees

I'd fight imaginary wars

'Til my mom called from our back porch

And I'd come home covered in that pine pitch

From my head down to my knees

Too big to wrap my arms around

Surely older than I could count

Must have been there since the Mayflower crossed the sea

They'd been through blizzards and hurricanes

Summer droughts and freezing rain

Them pines would live forever

At least that's how it seemed to me

CHORUS:

Now what's become of the old pine woods

It's all gone and there's a brand new neighborhood

All for a buck they cut down all those trees

They subdivided all of my fondest memories

When those trucks came for my woods

I did everything I could

And it was war for real when school let out that June

I ripped down flags and I pulled up stakes

But what difference can one boy make

Them pines still fell like thunder on a summer afternoon

CHORUS

And I never became friends

With the families that moved in

They were different from us or so it seemed

I grew up and moved away

I just go home on holidays

But those tall and tangled pines

They're still falling in my dreams

We all want the greenest lawn

And a country club where we belong

And an SUV to get us there in style

But we don't keep track of what we've lost

We can't calculate the cost

When there's no place left for a boy's

Imagination to run wild

So what's become of the old pine woods

It's all gone and it's gone for good

All for a buck they cut down all those trees