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 toads. 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.