Under the Old Oak Tree

 Lyrics:

You carried me across the threshold in June

Then the war, it came too soon

And drafted you across the ocean in September

That summer was our honeymoon

In one autumn afternoon we walked around the graveyard

Do you remember...

You didn't want to have to plan for the worst yet

You didn't want to think about it

But then you said

Swear by me (swear by me) under the old oak tree

The one you couldn't put your arms around in the cemetery

Bury me (bury me) under the old oak tree

And when I take my final breath

I'll meet you there, dear, after death

Under the old oak tree

I see the branches sprawling

Your son's already crawling

I have so many happy dreams for him, for us

But with cold weather came the flu

First it was him, and then you

There was no good news from the allied front

As they stormed the beaches, I laid him in the ground

The war was far from over and you were nowhere to be found

Now only me (only me) under the old oak tree

The one you couldn't put your arms around in the cemetery

Bury me (bury me) under the old oak tree

And when I take my final breath

I'll meet you there, dear, after death

Under the old oak tree

*SICCCCK harmonica solo*

The groundskeeper caught me starin'

At the branches that were barren

More than anything, your company I crave

You were missing in actions, no body for exaction

So an empty box lays beside your son in the grave

And I don't know what will become of my life

For a brief moment in time, I was a mother and wife

And now my family (family) under the old oak tree

The one you couldn't put your arms around

Bury me (bury me) under the old oak tree

And when I take my final breath

I will join you both in death

Bury me (bury me) under the old oak tree

The one you couldn't put your arms around in the cemetery

Bury me (bury me) under the old oak tree

And when I take my final breath

I'll meet you there, dear, after death

Under the old oak tree

Under the old oak tree

A few notes:

Welcome to the saddest song I've ever written.

One day last year, Mike and I went to the Andersonville National Historic Site and walked around. We went to the cemetery first, and if you have never been there, it is simply astounding how many graves there are. So. Much. Death. Caused by war.

I'm convinced that if you're not fighting giants to get into or defend the promised land, then war is 100% unnecessary and should be avoided. It destroys lives, ruins families, wrecks economies while the private banks funding both sides get richer. True story.

Mike and I got really depressed after going there because war just really sucks. I think what got me the most, after seeing thousands upon thousands of graves, is that they have this little memorial section closer to the museum. There was a plaque there with the names of US POW's that were in Hiroshima at the time that the A-bomb was dropped: 12 soldiers killed by the nuclear weapon of their own country. I think it was right then and there when I became a pacifist.

Under the Old Oak Tree is a tribute to how sucky war is but how people just have to live in that reality. There was this huge oak tree near the center of cemetery site and while walking along, I noticed how there would be a death of the man and then widowed wife buried next to him years and years later.

The tree in the song is a metaphor for family, i.e. a family tree. The three of them were never together at once so the tree was "the one you couldn't put your arms around". Just thought I'd point that out for those of you with a strong repulsion and resulting blindness toward symbolic literary devices.