Growing Up

(album: 1988 - 2023)

Backyard dirt in our veins
Blood of Christ, Sunday morning clothes
We were coming of age
In the way, way back of a station wagon, breathing secondhand smoke

Ash trays in the kitchen sink
Oprah's on the big TV at 4
Barbie clothes in a Crown Royal bag
Jesus in the living room, Mama's locked her bedroom door

When the way it was wasn't what it seemed
Lemonade stand summers, prom king working at the Dairy Queen
All the stars we hung above those small-town trees
Young hearts still unbroken, flies by before you know it
You move on just the way time does
Till something brings you right back
To growing up
Growing up

Church field, travel carnival
I'll meet you at the Ferris wheel at 10
We'll step across that line, just as far as we can go
Before it's our turn to see how big the real world is

When the way it was wasn't what it seemed
Making out in backseats behind the Dairy Queen
All the stars we hung above those small-town trees
Young hearts trying to out run 'em, promise we don't become 'em
Just move on the way time does
Till something brings you right back
To growing up
Growing up

Now you're six years sober, taking your mother to her treatments
She says she wants to see the old house one more time
And you can't go back any more than she can go back
And if you said you didn't miss it, you'd be lying

When the way it was wasn't what it seemed
Maybe you could trade that freedom back for some of that naive
All the stars we hung above those small-town trees
Maybe they can remind you, I bet they'd recognize you
You think you moved on, but no one really does
Just like no one tells you it'll be this tough, this tough
Growing up
Growing up