Our Erie Canal Song

I've got an old man and he's got five gals
He's gonna take 'em on the Erie Canal.
He bought a boat, it's his new best pal.
He's gonna sail it on the Erie Canal.
Two weeks straight in the study shack
He only came down for meals and snacks
Oh the last two weeks were sure no blast,
We just hope our Daddy passed!

Oh, Dad you know we need a break,
Dental Boards- No Piece of Cake
You've been a good ol' worker, and we've been good nice gals,
Time to take us on the Erie Canal.
He bought a boat just on a whim,
Some folks said, "That dude is dim!"
But our Dad's no whimp, but I guess you know
He put the "Buff" in Buffalo.

So Don't look around for a job, old man
No time for workin' in the 6 week plan.
Keep your summer open cuz you told us gals
15 days on the Erie Canal
No time to lose, We're ready to go.
We hear the boatin's mighty slow.
I'm sure our neighbor's will be glad to know.
This boat is leaving Buffalo.

I've got an old man and we're his fine gals.
He's gonna take us on the Erie Canal.
He bought a boat, it's his new best pal.
He's gonna sail it on the Erie Canal
We've had some summer's in our days
Clay filled tracks and Rainy Hay.
But the winds have changed and we're ready to go.
Sailing out of Buffalo.

This is our version of the popular Erie Canal song. My kids had been taught it at school so they all knew the tune. To Celebrate the completion of the boards, I taught this to them and we planned to sing it as soon as Brent walked in after the test. Unfortantely, Brent walked in in a very bad mood.

"Well, I failed the test!" he announced.

The results aren't available for a month actually but. . .

He had been very uneasy about the time he had put it getting ready and was just crossing his fingers that by some miracle it would be enough. Now he is sure that it definitely would take a miracle to pass considering at least 75% of his answers were a complete guess.

The worst thing is I guess people usually don't fail this test. He might be the only one in 2 years to do so.


Brent would probably like me to point out at this point that the whole "two weeks straight in the study shack" was a gross overstatement considering during the same 2 weeks his kids were just getting out of school and he attended 3 different awards ceremonies, a ballet recital, family scripture study every morning, church meetings and other obligations that go along with his new calling in the elder's quorum presidency, helping a family move the Saturday before, and the list goes on. And don't think he didn't have some little girl running in to tell or show something to him approximately every 15 minutes. Not to mention all the boating and thoughts of boating interrupting his studying. So really we both know that he could have made different choices and had different results.

So as you can imagine there were dark clouds hanging over that evening as we surprised him with the song. I didn't really get the reaction I was hoping for. I believe he actually was sprawling on the couch with his arm over his face the whole performance, missing all our great actions. The timing couldn't have been worse.

Things are back to normal now a couple days later and we are planning the trip. We should be going at the end of this month after the pageant.