Well he likes black coffee fried eggs and a well done T-bone steak
He likes a red dress and her pearly white teeth and the flash of a pretty brown leg
He said back in the thirties you know you never had it made
He's an engineer over on the Ohio river runnin' in the Pittsburgh trade

With the inspection office in Louisville had a desk for a very short time
And he played in a band on two different boats working for the Streckfus line
And long ago he smoked reefer and he even made home brew
And the reefer come in through New Orleans back before World War II

Well he sits and smokes an old I-bolt cigar says he doesn't miss it at all
But he still goes out and he makes a few trips in the summer and then in the fall
Oh the railroad trains the bus and planes been takin' up all the slack
He's been a-watching all those river towns slowly turn their back

Well he comes from a real old-time way of life he had to fight to just learn how
And he might even have voted for Nixon once but I'm sure he sees that now
Well Friday night he makes the best damn gumbo you'd ever want to eat
And Saturday morning 'fore everyone's up he's gone off down to the fleet

You're as pretty as he is ugly and he's the happiest man alive
You've got him into believin' that old men are back in style
Now you see these Oysters Bienville and this baked potato skin
I eat 'em so I can grow up and be an old man just like him