Boy In Ohio

By Phil Ochs

G                 C      G
Creek was running by the road
                          D
And the Buckeye sun was a-shinin'
   G                C          G
I rode my bike down Alum Creek Drive
     Em             Am
When I was a boy in Ohio

G                    C        G
The English teacher he didn't care
                    F
He challenged us to checkers
    Bb                   Dm     D7
And once in a while we'd swap a joke
                     Eb
When I was a boy in Ohio

Once I was caught playing hooky from school
They found me home in the evening
I confessed I had been to the movie show
When I was a boy in Ohio

We would wait for the summer to come
For swimmin' and pickin' berries
But now a freeway covers the field 
Where I used to be so happy

I remember the Burger Boy
Where the girls would shine like the engines
And the radio was always loud
When I was a boy in Ohio

Spanish teacher she tried to help
She was much too pretty
So I just stared at the back of her legs
When I was a boy in Ohio

It was 3.2 beer* at the honky tonk bar
Where they said the girls were easy
But somehow I never found me one
When I was a boy in Ohio

Soon I was grown and I had to leave
And I've been all over the country
But I don't believe I've had more fun
Than when I was a boy in Ohio

Notes:

* I used to live in Ohio and you used to be able to buy 3.2 beer if you were over 18 but under 21. It was supposed to be 3.2 percent alcohol while normal beers range around 4 to 6 percent. It took a few more beers to get loaded, but you could do it if you had the bladder. It was not sold to minors....legally anyway. At some point they lowered the drinking age to 18 for all alcohol and 3.2 beer disappeared from Ohio. Ah....those college days.

(Larry S. (g2689lsaue@umbsky.cc.umb.edu))

Chords supplied by Jim Lesses and corrected by James Barnett.