The New Fad

Speakin' 'bout city folks tryin' to get out in the country and act country

There's other things they're doin' too

They think up new things

And it's stuff we done all our life and they call it "New"

I was flyin' to Chattanooga, Tennessee to do a show

There was a big TV camera at the airport

Oh, there's waitin' for me, folks with them notebooks

Writin' down and makin' notes about Jerry Clower was

Comin' to do a show, I walked off a big Delta jet

And there was the lady interviewing me for her show

She was gonna go back and play it on the noon show

She said, "Hello Jerry, welcome to Chattanooga"

I said, "Hey darlin', good to be here"

She said, "Well Jerry, you are a churchman

You have a lovely family

What do you think about the new fad, streaking?"

I said, "New fad? What you city folks

What y'all done up to now? New fad?

How come you callin' it a new fad?"

Oh, what did you call it when you was growin' up?"

I said, "Runnin' nakked"

I said, "Lady, have you ever played gator at the swimmin' hole?"

She said, "Pardon?"

I said, "Darlin', we would get into the swimmin' hole, all of us boys

Back when we was young'uns

Growin' up, and we'd get in the swimmin' hole nakked, we didn't

Have no swimmin' suits, and we would play gator

You city folks call it playin' tag, and if you was the gator

You had to catch somebody else and touch him on the top of the head

And if you couldn't out-swim the gator

You had to take to the woods to see could you outrun him

Now, if you come within a public road

And you come within sight of that public road

You doubled back and headed back toward the swimmin' hole

Because if word had got to Poppa

You had been seen runnin' nakked, you'd a got streaked"