The Treehouse

When we were kids and lived in Vidalia, Louisiana, Big Brother and I developed friendships with another couple of brothers that were about the same age as us.

Guy and Johnny lived one street over from us when we lived on Charles Street in Vidalia. We would ride our bicycles and we'd play home run derby and football, either in our big yard or in their back yard. (That's Guy (L) and Johnny (R), a couple of years after the time I talk about today.)

Also, our parents were friends, Guy and Johnny's father worked with Don C., our dad. So sometimes they would have us over for supper or vice versa.

But in Guy and Johnny's back yard was a massive old mimosa tree. About four feet above ground the huge trunk split off into several large limbs that were all about the same angle.

Guy and Johnny's dad bought the wood and so forth and they took their time and built the most solid and coolest treehouse in that old mimosa tree that I have ever seen with my own eyes.

The tree was perfect for a treehouse, with those perfectly splayed limbs.

They built a deck, and then built a perfect little house up there. Just a single room with a pitched roof like a real house, but this thing was perfect in every detail. It even had a small screen door as well as a small solid door. It had a couple of windows and a front porch.

This thing was just big enough for us four to lay down in there, so naturally, every chance we got, we "camped out" in the treehouse.

Of course very little sleeping went on. We played cards and talked and joked and in the dead of night would dare one another to climb down the tree and do this or that.

I remember eating tons of potato chips and dill pickles. I hope we ate something else better than that, but we survived I guess.

After a few years, we moved to another house in another part of town, and didn't hang out with Guy and Johnny as much. Of course we were getting older and developing other interests and new friends closer to the next house we lived in.

We moved away from Vidalia to Monroe, Louisiana in the summer of 1975. I haven't a clue as to what happened to Guy and Johnny.

The only thing I ever heard was that Guy worked in the oil field like my dad and his dad.

But that most excellent treehouse will be in my memory forever. That thing was a monster to try to climb up to get into, but once there it was worth it. It was a real little house, waterproof and everything. (Left to right, Big Brother, Younger Brother, Me, and Johnny.)

To think about how clueless and innocent of what was going on in the world we were back then almost brings tears to my eyes.

Big Sis still goes to Vidalia a lot to visit her old high school buddies. Maybe she can chime in in the comments and let me know if she knows anything about whatever happened to Guy and Johnny.

I worked to clean up these print scans a few days ago and I've been thinking about Guy, Johnny, and that treehouse.