"I Was Arrested Once, You Know"

“I Was Arrested Once, You Know”

“I was arrested once, you know,

With a whole bunch of other folks

In Indiana long ago.”—

“That’s just another of your jokes,

“And what were you arrested for?”

“Well, it was in the summertime,

And I took off the clothes I wore—

In Indiana that’s a crime.”

“Why, just for taking off your clothes?”

“And skinny-dipping, that was all,

’Cause what I did was to expose 

Myself, and, just to do the crawl.”

“The crawl?” “What else was there to do?

The back-stroke, side-stroke, by the by,

The breast stroke (all in public view)—

I even did the butterfly.”

“Wow, you sure did know how to swim.”

“Oh, yeah, my swimming was the best

Of any of the best of them—

The problem, though, was I’d undressed.”

“That’s just what you should not have done

’Cause everybody else could see.”

“No different though than anyone

Else in that state of nudity.”

“You mean they all were naked then?

How many of them besides you?

Two, four, six, eight or was it ten?”

“All told, just about thirty-two.”

“And all of you were taken in?

And did they let you have your clothes?”

“Of course, they did, or they’d’ve been

Guilty of others to expose.”

“And how long then were you in for?”

“Oh, not so long as I recall…

An hour, maybe, and no more.

The bail they set was fairly small.”

“And who was it that paid your bail?”

“She was a girl I knew back then

Who when she got me out of jail

Kept going over it again.

“Of all the people that she knew

I was the squarest of them all,

Yet I’d get caught for what I’d do

For an infraction she thought small.”