Two Typical American Kids

from The Best of Bill Metts by Bill Metts

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lyrics

Two Typical American Kids by Bill Metts 9/24/2023
Once upon a time there were two little boys.
The typical American kind.
Search the whole country over, every city or town,
two more typical kids could not be found.
Their names were James and Willy
they were friends of mine.
They were good little boys never got into trouble
just a little bit of mischief at night.
They liked baseball comic books, ice cream swirls,
they weren’t yet sure about little girls.
The only difference between 'um really
was James was black and Willie was white.

The boys were doing some work for their 5th grade teacher
after school one day to make some money.
When the job was done James
held out his hand for the dough,
she looked at him shook her head no.
She walked around James went to Willy and said,
"Here. Better safe than sorry honey".
This wasn't the first time Willy saw prejudice like that
but he couldn't let It go today.
He stood up tall with anger in his eyes
he knew his friend's worth he saw through those lies.
The bond that those boys shared between 'em
blew his fear away.

CHORUS
Us old ones don’t give them young ‘uns near
enough credit as they be de serving.
We go on teaching them things that ain’t been working. Maybe we’re the ones who should be watching,
listing and learning.

Willy wasn't gonna let nobody
treat his best friend that way.
He was stomping on the ground, shaking and crying.
There were angry words and spittle flying.
He looked at the money, spit on the ground,
turned and walked away.

That boy had no idea that what he'd just done
made the whole world a little bit brighter.
His friend James held his head up a whole lot higher
and because she'd gotten caught in Willy's line of fire,
the things that were wrong in that teacher's head and heart
got a little bit righter.

CHORUS

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from The Best of Bill Metts, released November 1, 2019

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Bill Metts Cape Coral, Florida

I have been playing guitar and singing for nearly fifty years now. I Started with American Folk and Blues tunes and finger- style guitar. Had a run in with a Classic Rock band for 6 years or so and I sure was glad when that ended. I spent 15 years playing in nursing homes doing standards from the 30’s and 40’s. Now I mostly write. You will see a bit of all the above in my songs. I hope you like. ... more

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