Day #14 – Life Is Just A Tire Swing

Day #14 – Life Is Just A Tire Swing

What does a tire swing indicate to you? To me, Tire swings indicate childhood, leisure, ease, relaxation, a simpler time.

At the house next door to me, there used to be a tire swing in the front yard. A couple three years ago, we had a wild May thunderstorm and the branch that held that tire swing came crashing down into my front yard. It hit a large cottonwood tree but managed to miss my house, which I am very grateful for. It was a tall tree and most of it is still standing. It’s a stately old Elm tree, and I love to watch the branches and leaves sway in the wind, but I have recently started thinking about that tire swing.

The rope is long gone, but the old tire remains, propped up against the trunk of that tree. How long had it been hanging from that tree branch? How many people sat in that tire swing and spun around in circles, getting so dizzy that they laughed themselves silly?

I really feel like that is what the world needs right now. More ease, more laughter, more silliness.

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Originally posted on 9/15/2023

Day #14 – Life Is Just A Tire Swing

As Jimmy got a little older and a little more settled in his career, people might claim that he and his music got a little weird, a little quirkier, but I present you 1974’s Life Is Just A Tire Swing from the album A1A, and say that Jimmy was always Jimmy, and stayed true to himself to the end.

JB himself described this song as “kind of weird”. He said he had two verses written, mostly about growing up on the gulf coast, family members and southern life, but he couldn’t find a finish for the song. In the early 70’s he toured a lot and was driving by a small farm in Illinois, and he saw about 8 cars sitting on blocks in a yard and a tire swing hanging from a tree branch, and he said realized that was the finish to the song.

But he didn’t have time to write it because he had a show to play. That night/early morning driving back to where he would fly out in the morning, he fell asleep and crashed into a telephone pole. He woke up to a farmer and his family pulling him out of the car, with that same tire swing about 25 feet in front of him. He said in interviews, it really freaked him out, the situation and seeing that same tire swing. Jimmy was unhurt in that car accident, but the car was wrecked, and he had the time to finish his song.

I have always found this quirky little song makes me happy, long before I knew any backstory at all. Much of the time, we take life too seriously, so enjoy the simple things. Jump on a tire swing! Please enjoy Life Is Just A Tire Swing; I have included the link in the comments. I hope it makes you smile!

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So, how do we go about bringing more ease, more laughter, more silliness into the world? The world seems so hard right now, yet so brittle, it feels like it could shatter into a million pieces. So, does everyone just hang a tire swing in their front yard? I would love to but that doesn’t really seem practical either. Yet how can we bring those same feelings into our lives?

Honestly, that is one of the reasons that I am so drawn to Jimmy’s music. Because while it can be incredibly deep, it’s also light and quirky and silly, and let’s us laugh out loud! And we all need to laugh out loud. The world needs more laughter, more smiles, more silliness, more ease. Maybe the world just needs more tire swings!

And if we can’t have our own tire swings, at least we have all of Jimmy’s music to help us find the feelings a tire swing inspires in us all.

Stacy

Please enjoy Life Is Just A Tire Swing. I have included the link below.

The link is from Jimmy’s personal YouTube channel, which I have no personal affiliation with.