One time when I's growin' up -- it was when I's a
kid -- there was nothin' to do at home so I called
up on a friend an' said "Let's pack us a box lunch
an' go down to the Nishnabotna an' go swimmin'.
An' maybe look for some toads." My friend said he
thought that's a good idea 'cause he didn't have
nothin' to do either an' he was outta toads. So we
packed up our box lunches an' we started out
a-walkin', an' we come to a big iron bridge which
was five miles from town where we observed a big
sign which says "West Nishnabotna". I says "This
here's the place, an', an' now if we could just
find some toads an' go for a good swim, we could
have fun all day doin' nothin', just loafin'
around in the creek." We jumped into that dirty
water an' I thought we might be able to swim in
it, but we quickly discovered that we could not
even begin to dog-paddle in it. Be, because right
where we was, the Nishnabotna was only
four-an'-a-half inches deep. So we wound up
a-crawlin' along down on all fours in it, through
the mud an' beer cans an' yucky things an' old
pieces a' cars. We went past a bunch a' fenders
an' a couple a' Plymouth hubcaps, when we come to
a place where we thought there might be some
Find more similar lyrics on http://mp3lyrics.com/Gnctoads. When we was surprised by a farmer who told
us to get on out of there an' to never come back
or he'd call up the sheriff an' have us put into
jail for the rest of our natural-born lives with
nothin' to eat but bread an' water so we'd starve.
But time passes by real quickly when you're havin'
fun, so we ran through the fenders and the mud to
the bridge again. But when we got back there we
sadly discovered that the sun had been out and our
backs was all blistered so bad we had to lay flat
on our bellies for two weeks in bed which made us
sick to our stomachs an' we didn't care about
nothin' anymore. It just ain't too good for your
livers to go swimmin' in that river. You can get
cut up pretty bad in there an' there ain't too
many toads. There's nothin' but, There's nothin'
but mud in there an' there's all kinds a' crud,
an' it's layin' all over the place so you'd better
watch out. If you wanna get sick, just go crawlin'
around in that creek. There's a whole lot a' bad
things that can happen to you. No, it ain't, No,
it ain't good for your liver to hunt toads in that
river. The West Nishnabotna is the creek of my
childhood.