Tree House
I found this tree house the other day in my neighborhood.
When I was a kid I wanted a tree house so friggin bad, you don’t even know. You DO NOT KNOW!
And I came close twice. The first time involves my oldest childhood friend, Ary. I have no idea where Ary is today, since we lost touch about 25 years ago… but I really hope he finds this blog.
Ary, if you find this sucker, PLEASE leave a comment… share a childhood memory of us that will, without a doubt, verify your identity. And if you’re not Ary… I encourage you to fake yourself as Ary. Make something up and see if you get lucky.
Anyway, the tree house.
I’m gonna say we were… 5 or 6 years old, and Ary kept telling me that his uncle was planning to come over one weekend and build him a tree house. He was gonna use the tree in Ary’s front yard. I’ve been trying to find a good picture of what I remembered that tree to look like… I’d say it was a younger, MUCH shorter version of THIS TREE.
If you’re thinking, “you can’t build a tree house in that tree,” you’re probably correct. I can’t say for sure, since Ary’s uncle never showed up to make it. That elaborate club house Ary and I had been planning was never realized; that luxury base, equipped with an elevator, stairs in its trunk, I think we even designed a weapons system… strictly for defense. We were still in a cold war, remember.
So after weeks of excuses for why his uncle couldn’t come… Ary decided to take matters into his own hands.
It was Christmas day (or a day or two after) and Ary had been given two large Star Wars ships for Christmas. The boxes for those ships were big… at least in relation to a 6 year old body. You guys know where this is going, right?
Yep.
Ary and I jammed the two boxes into that wiry set of branches, we climbed up, and we got inside of each. I remember laying there for a few seconds before getting scared. It wasn’t very high, but those branches weren’t gonna hold for long, and well… the lower half of my body was inside A CARDBOARD BOX!
The other tree house story doesn’t have much of a set up. A few years later my family had already moved to a new house, and at the end of our street there was a little grove of trees. A few kids from the neighborhood, including myself, formed a club. And since every club needs a club house, we were determined to make one.
By “determined”, I mean we talked about it for a day. Then someone came up with the brilliant idea of jamming an old school chair we found into the branches (a recurring theme).
This tree was much bigger…. much stronger… and the chair locked firmly in place. And so as not to put our new clubhouse to waste, we each took half hour turns sitting in it, while the rest of the club went off to explore. I’m sure we called it “being a scout” or something.
I can’t remember if I was the first… but I know I was definitely the last. I sat there for about 5 minutes in complete boredom before just going home.
And that’s it… my two closest shots at a tree house. *sigh* I’m embarrassed to say, these days when I see one, I still get a little pissed.
FakeAry on 10 Mar 2009 at 1:45 pm #
Um…remember when we were 8 and got drunk off of Mountain Dew? And you tried to steal the mailman’s truck, but couldn’t figure out how to drive on the right side (even though you didn’t know how to drive at all?). That was stellar.
John Cabrera on 10 Mar 2009 at 1:49 pm #
FakeAry, I know you’re totally fake, dude! By 8 the real Ary and I had already lost touch.
Manos Torgo on 10 Mar 2009 at 1:57 pm #
Awww that’s so sad. I am totally getting you a book on treehouses for your birthday.
We didn’t have big enough trees in my back yard so my dad built a playhouse for me and my sister. It was a pretty solid little house that could easily fit two cots, had a large door and windows and linoleum floor!
My best friend on the other hand did have a large enough tree and we had a platform(no roof or walls) with a rope ladder, plus rungs nailed to the tree. We had a decent view of the a park behind his house.
The feeling from being in either one of those places was one of safety and escape. Especially from the realities of growing up. We used our imaginations to take us to castles, spaceships, etc.,to be who we wanted to be. I wish more kids would have that instead of 24/7 tv and internet.
Its never too late to build your own treehouse…
Jules on 10 Mar 2009 at 2:13 pm #
awww, that’s pretty sad. i never had a treehouse and desperately wanted one, but also was afraid of heights. it was a conundrum. it’s funny, i was just thinking the other day about my dream home (it’s not very grand, 3 bedrooms, a living room with built-in bookshelves, a family room, nice kitchen, garage, laundry room. AND, a yard with at least one tree sturdy enough to hold a tree house for Cody.) of course, this implies that i will have the means to buy my dream house before Cody outgrows the idea of having a treehouse. but do you ever really outgrow it?
you could still have one, i’m sure.
xo
kelseroo on 10 Mar 2009 at 2:17 pm #
I loved this post. I think it is my favorite:-) I love childhood stories! I won’t pretend to be Ary (well, you already know who I am), but I will share my tree house story:
my sister and I wanted a tree house as well, and we had the PERFECT tree for it in our front yard. But my dad was always to busy to build one for us. We spent years just climbing up in that tree and sitting on the branches. We had our own special branches claimed. Of course my sister picked hers first (she’s older) so I got the one that was lower and covered with ants. I wanted to be in the tree so bad, that I just got used to being covered with ants when we went up there!
Here’s another topic: Did you create any “clubs” with your friends as a kid? I was all about that. The most original one I created (this is going to exposed my geekdom) was the “Fossil Detective” club. Yep… It consisted of me and my friend wandering around the train tracks behind her house and collecting “fossils.” We even got our own little tools and chisels and brushes and stuff to preserve the “fossils” we found. We would research different types of dinosaurs and give reports to each other… ok I better not reveal anything more… this is blackmail material:-)
Pauline on 10 Mar 2009 at 3:03 pm #
my friends have informed me that because I had a pony growing up, I’m not allowed to talk about other childhood toys such as our huge tree fort in the Monterey Pine.
John Cabrera on 10 Mar 2009 at 3:09 pm #
Errrrr. Yeah, wise.
FakeAry on 10 Mar 2009 at 4:50 pm #
Er, I meant 8……….months??
K8 on 10 Mar 2009 at 5:04 pm #
I totally feel your pain! I always wanted a tree house and never even got to go inside one, let alone have one of my very own. I think tree houses were the cause of my first feelings of envy as a kid.
Love this post.
John Cabrera on 10 Mar 2009 at 5:12 pm #
I still think you’re fake, FakeAry.
Pauline on 10 Mar 2009 at 5:44 pm #
Oops… that anonymous post was me typing on my phone in the town of Clearlake Oaks this afternoon.
Here is my issue with the moratorium on the talk of the pony and stuff. 1.) The pony was about 19 when I got her on my 5th birthday and she was MEAN! She used to try to rub me off on fence posts, in trees and on BARBED WIRE! She was tired so would stop and not move and all the other girls on their ponies would ditch me. It was not fun. But because I merely HAD a pony… people have idealized my childhood.
The tree fort? it was pretty spacious and was high up in a big tree but… it had no ceiling or even a real railing for that matter… it was like… a foot wide board that separated you and your friends from certain death if they fell over. Tree houses weren’t all that great I don’t think… always the risk of injury… so you didn’t miss out on much j.
I did build a lot of forts out of old boards, nails and rolls of thick plastic in the woods. I’d ride my pony to these forts after I was ditched by my sister and her friends and pretend they had died in a big fight against the cowboys and that I was the sole indian of my tribe left. (oh… and they ALWAYS made me be the cowboy when we played cowboys and indians.)
My pony died when I was 9. And after all that… I loved her anyway.
Vanessa on 10 Mar 2009 at 6:29 pm #
Were your clubs like G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid of Slimy girlS) or more like the He-Man Woman Haters Club? Or were you little gentlemen more inclusive than that?
We never had a tree big enough for a tree house so the neighbors used to pile into our shed and we put a pool lounger across the bottom of the door to make like a little half door so we could easily see out while sitting on the floor. We’d play pizza shop and summer camp and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They always made me be April. 
I longed to be a turtle.
Anonymous on 10 Mar 2009 at 6:30 pm #
I had one. My brother and I built it in the trees by the brook in our backyard. It was awesome, the bottom part even had a bridge we built to go on the other side of the brook. I pretended it was a drawbridge…because all girls need a castle and a drawbridge.
But then the mean lady who lived on the other side yelled at us and said we weren’t allowed to play that close to her property. My parents told us that she was sick and not to play there anymore. We tried going there and being quiet, but somehow we always got caught.
So I had an awesome kid-built tree house that I couldn’t go near
No other trees on our property would work for tree houses, so to this day, I remain tree house-less.
Leah on 10 Mar 2009 at 6:48 pm #
I did have a tree house when I was little. One Thanksgiving week, my dad, my uncle and my older cousin’s husband got together and built a tree house for me and my siblings (and all the neighbor kids who would benefit from it). It was really sweet…
We played in it for years, and then when me and my sister and brother grew out of it, my youngest sister was still using it. Even our golden retriever would climb the stairs and hang out with us, being all protective :-p.
It was used for most of its life, until a terrible tornado last year struck some trees down that smashed through the middle of it.
But I’ll never forget my dad, uncle and “cousin-in-law” out there at all hours of the day and into the night, building the tree house for all of us kids so we could have the experience.
Sorry… I don’t mean to trigger any envy or animosity
.
Vanessa N. on 10 Mar 2009 at 11:08 pm #
I love this post (and all of the stories in the comments)!
My family had a treehouse for the first 5 years of my life, so I don’t remember too much about it. I remember that it had a roof, walls and a trapdoor in the floor where you entered from climbing up the ladder (the kind of ladder where pieces of wood are nailed to the tree trunk…not that safe if you really think about it), but what I remember most was my older brother and sister and the 2 neighbor kids didn’t want to let me into the treehouse even though I knew the password was “chop suey.” Typical youngest child stuff, and I eventually got in using typical youngest child means: telling my parents about it.
At our next house, I didn’t have a treehouse, but I did have a special tree toward the back of our property that was “my tree” and that I spent a lot of time in. Whenever I used to “run away,” I’d wrap an apple in a handkerchief, tie the handkerchief to a stick, and take that and my Walkman to my tree where I would sit until someone found me or I decided I didn’t want to run away anymore. I’d also just go to the tree to think. I spent a lot of time climbing and sitting in trees as a kid. I’m sure my mom appreciated me getting pine pitch on my clothes.
One thing I did have at the second house that many kids probably didn’t have growing up was a teepee. I was really into learning about Native Americans, so my dad built me a teepee out of a few large birch branches and a blue tarp. There were no cowboys in that world.
I really feel like finding a tree to climb and spend some time in now.
Echoing what a few other people have already said, John, it’s never too late to build your treehouse!
Amrie on 11 Mar 2009 at 5:15 am #
We had a huge cherry tree in my backyard growing up. And we always thought we should build a treehouse. When my sister, brother, and I were 4, 5, and 6, my dad told us his saw broke and we just kind of accepted we weren’t getting a tree house, so my brother and I would take turns climbing to the top of the tree, and climbing right back down.
Girlonthepark on 11 Mar 2009 at 5:35 am #
I desparately wanted one and I apparently wrote my dad a note on construction paper asking for a “clabhaws upinatree” (I was four and didn’t understand spelling or word spacing), but it was never to be.
On another note, have you seen this?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/nov/25/green-building-ethical-living?picture=340008144
Awesome!
John Cabrera on 11 Mar 2009 at 10:36 am #
NO!! Holy!!! That’s amazing, Jill! Thanks for sharing.
And actually, while I’m at it, thanks everyone for sharing your Tree House stories. For those of you who didn’t have one either, it’s nice to know I wasn’t alone… for those who did have a tree house… or a pony, or friggin go-cart or something… yeah……………… cool.
lol.
CRAWFORD on 11 Mar 2009 at 5:16 pm #
The year was 1983 and after relentless begging, my mom finally let us climb “Givie” – appropriately named after The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstien. It was a time of chasing down the ice cream truck for half a block with nickels and pennies in your pocket, NERDS candy was all the rage and Troubles and Turnips was our basal reader in 2nd grade. We were 7 and 5 and the world was our oyster. The only truth we knew was that we loved that damn tree. My sister and I somehow managed to create a mini trapeze set up. To quicken the climb, we dragged an old picnic table that someone had abandoned. Our tree house was complete once we installed the old plywood, “Tarzan”ian ropes and a telephone system that I learned to make after watching it 3-2-1 Contact). We would all meet there after school and play Human PACMAN, TV Freeze Tag and Extreme Hide and Seek. Ah, the GREAT old dayz!
Gemma on 12 Mar 2009 at 8:07 am #
The boy at the bottom of our lane had a tree house. It was in a huge tree and had a rope ladder and a slide.
When I was about 6 I feel out of it and knocked myself out… There was a lot of blood (as i put my teeth through my tongue) and a histerical mother.
There was also social services as this was my second trip to A +E in a week (3 days earlier I had tried to ride my bike whilst wearing my dress with the long ribbons… there was a spoke incident and many stitches).
I still really want a tree house though!
Viv on 12 Mar 2009 at 10:03 am #
*sigh* I never even came close to having a tree house.. Ironically enough, living in south america you would think that you would have access to jungle awesomeness.. but alas we lived in the city and I was always in some big buidling complex.
we did however, do lots of outdoor things, and one thing I can remember is having “ant olympics”. We would specifically look for the big black ants (they were the nice ones, since the red ones would bite). We would then place our ant in the starting position to see which ones will be the best and survive all the things we would put them on in the playground.. (they kinda looked like this, and they were pretty large: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_FOEvcwYJoq4/RkPsbsKN30I/AAAAAAAAAJ0/nQPIN62XVDU/s320/ant.JPG )
so the first task was alway making them go UP the slide.. if you had a smart ant, it would actually go to the edges and find rusty parts to grip and make it up! they will then be placed in other situations, like holding on for dear life while we put it in the merry go round and spinned them, put them on a leaf and having them arrive to the other side of the kiddie pool safelly, and so on…
come to think of I, i always seemed to either be having some kind of insect game or making things with mud. Go figure! LOL
John Cabrera on 12 Mar 2009 at 10:48 pm #
Damn, Gemma, that’s a gruesome story. I have a few like that. One in particular involves me at like 10 pushing a shopping cart very fast down the sidewalk. The front wheel suddenly got stuck in a crack… and I flew. Still have an awesome scar on my knee.
CRAWFORD, EVERY thing you mentioned brought back vivid memories. About halfway through your comment, I thought… did I grow up with this person??? Seriously. I will revisit this post years from now just for your comment.
Jill! I tweeted that pic you posted here yesterday… but forgot to give you credit. A lot of people responded, so I’m gonna tweet it again.
Oh, and Kels to answer your question, yeah, I had lots of clubs as a kid. But our plans were always so much bigger than what we could do. For example, I remember I wanted to design a Voltron inspired club. I wanted to somehow get my hands on go-cart parts. I was convinced if I could, I’d definitely be able to build a team of go-carts that would transform into a giant robot. Each of us in the club would control one of them. Here were the main flaws:
Girlonthepark on 13 Mar 2009 at 8:37 am #
Hey, no worries in the least.
It is a cool slideshow so everyone should see!
P.S. Is it wrong that, as a full-grown adult, part of me totally wants to live inside of numbers 2,5,6 & 9?
John Cabrera on 13 Mar 2009 at 10:41 am #
ummm… no. Not even slightly.
darklock on 16 Mar 2009 at 1:02 am #
We grew up with a tri-level tree house. It had a draw bridge, a trap door, and a large bucket you could pull things up with. It was most awesome.
We recreated it for our kids. A raccoon visited one day and lay himself back on the lounge in the third floor – yeah, built in lounge – bowl of cat food by his side. He reached over and scooped handfuls out of that bowl like a couch potato munchin’ popcorn, and later took a nap.
When I get rich *cough*… I want to live in a tree house.
John Cabrera on 17 Mar 2009 at 10:09 pm #
darklock, I think the sweetest luxury pad ever would be a tricked out version of the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. Equipped with hydraulics, solar panels, elevators. Yeah… one day.
who’s john cabrera? » Ghost Mall on 23 Mar 2009 at 3:34 am #
[...] that tree house I mentioned in my recent Tree House post? Not the one made out of a Star Wars box, but the second one. The one that was basically just a [...]
Liz on 25 Apr 2009 at 7:26 am #
I just happened upon this post, John, and it was the perfect read for a Saturday morning. All the comments, too.
I never had a treehouse either, but my best friend, Jeremy, and I thought seriously (i.e., for maybe a week when we were about 10 or 11) about building a fort in the ravine behind our houses. Neither of our dads were particularly handy, but there was a guy across the street (who was probably the age I am now) who always seemed to be using power tools in his garage, so we went over there one Saturday afternoon with a yellow legal pad and a no. 2 pencil and told him that we wanted to build a fort and asked him to draw us a blueprint and tell us what supplies we needed. I can’t even imagine how funny that must’ve been for him, but, to his credit, he took us totally seriously.
We never built it, of course. But that was a heady week in my life.
P.S. I think I grew up with you and Crawford, too. That reference to 3-2-1 Contact was priceless. I wonder if I still have my copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends. . . .
John Cabrera on 26 Apr 2009 at 1:37 am #
Liz, I love being surprised by a comment to an older post. And this was definitely one of my favorites from the first half of this year. Mostly cause I loved reading everyone’s stories in the comments. A great addition to the collection. And I’m pretty sure I still have my copies of Where the Sidewalk Ends, A light in the Attic, and The Giving Tree.
Jeans on 19 May 2009 at 5:12 pm #
Aww reading all of these comments makes me nostalgic for a childhood I never had! I too have always wanted a treehouse as well but that was just never possible growing up where I did.
However, the block that we lived on shared like this back alley/communal driveway area with the street behind us so every day during the summer, all the kids on the block would come out and ride their bikes up and down the lanes or play wiffleball. More often than not, we would end up “roofing” the balls – or end up hitting the balls onto people’s roofs. Sometimes, much to the adults’ dismay, the game was to see who could roof the ball the farthest. One time, in my late adolescence, long after all the kids I knew grew up and went off to college or moved away, my uncle had to get up onto the roof to fix something. I followed. I wish I had been able to take a picture because you would not believe the sea of wiffleballs and handballs that were strewn all over the rooftops. And I could see pretty far down the block since all the houses were connected.
Sigh. Good times.
Liz on 19 Jul 2009 at 5:12 am #
Experiences like this (and a lack of tall trees in Oklahoma due to the fact that they get sucked out of the freaking ground before they can grow to their potential) are what led me to buy “The Treehouse Book” or some such. So I will sit there and dream about what never was.
Ah, but the little clubhouse my brothers and I built on the ground was pretty great. We just deconstructed the wooden fence in our backyard to build it.
Ary on 07 May 2010 at 1:59 am #
Wow! Will the real slim shady please stand up. Johnny I remember this as if it were yesterday. I had a tree in front of my yard and we dreamed of having a tree fort, however we were so young that we just did not have the means to make it happen. About a 2 years later a boy by the name of Rob moved next door. I told him about the dream that we had shared and soon we began to make plans on building our new Tree Fort! There was construction nearby so we helped ourselves to some nails. plywood,and 2×4′s. Johnny I wish you could have seen our dream come true brother(I am shedding a tear of joy while writing this). We used 2×4′s nailed to the tree as the “stairs” up the tree, about 12 feet up we built a base with the plywood and other 2×4′s branched out to even higher “watch towers”. I went to google map and I typed in my old adress(8031 S.W 198 st. Miami,fl 33189) and there she still stands. I do not know if the fort is still there, probably not,but the memory will last a lifetime. Thanks Johnny. Ary de los Santos