Totems

Lyrics

Fifty Years Beneath the Rain Back when the lockers slammed like drums And Friday nights belonged to us When Sammamish halls still echoed loud And every dream outran the crowd Before the bills and aching backs Before life split us down the tracks We ruled the lots in hand-me-down rides With cassette tape hearts and Walkman pride Bellevue rain on flannel sleeves Campfire Smoke curled slow through cedar trees Lake Hills nights at crossroads mall Graffiti ghosts in Totem halls Back when the world was wide and wild Every one of us ran with style Thinking time would lose the race Never touch our laughing faces Now Sam’s another year around Somewhere in that rainforest town Old friends loading coolers high Beneath the gorge -lit sky Lances probably laughing way too loud Jason’s trying to work the crowd Somebody’s late, somebody’s grillin Kain’t fade the funk with this much chillin Some got silver in their hair Some carry burdens they don’t share Some drifted far, some stayed nearby Yet one old name still brings them by Stories grow bigger every year Heartbreak smaller we in the clear And all the things we thought would last Now live like songs inside the past Somebody’s telling stories twice Somebody’s giving bad advice Somebody vanished years ago Yet somehow still walks through the hearts we know And outside that rented place The Northwest wind still keeps its pace Like Bellevue nights in autumn air When none of us knew what waited there Back when Sammamish wore Totems proud Before the black and red appeased the crowd Now they call them Redhawks when they fly But memory don’t change with signs Because no logo, name, or brand Can erase those years from our hands No fresh paint on the gym wall shine Can rewrite who we were in time Tonight the mountains hear the noise Of aging men still acting boys Still carrying that old school song Still proving some things carry on For a night the clock stands still Just past the river bend beyond the hill No ranks to climb, no debts to pay Just old friends finding yesterday So raise a glass and let it pour For all the years and all before For every road that bent apart Yet somehow never split the heart Because the truth at fifty’s this: Life ain’t measured just by bliss But by who shows up after time Still laughing at the punchlines And when the weekend fades away And everybody drives where they stay May laughter linger in the air Like proof that youth was really there Because the names and logos fade And every school gets redesigned But nobody can renovate The ghosts we carry in our minds.