Thanks for the link, Dave. I enjoyed your song.

If you go to YouTube and search for 'Erie Canal,' you can see scenes from the canal today. I had no idea it had so much ttaffic on it. In fact, I figured it had silted up long ago.

I've been singing the song around the house, and it occurs to me that we've been singing it wrong. Yes, it's got a limited tune suitable to the ravaged voice of a drinkin, smokin, workin man, but the words are happy. He's fond of his mule, who's probably his only real friend. When you sing "She's a good old worker and a grand old pal," smile and make it sound like you're proud of her. It's not a dirge.

And when he sings "We've hauled some barges in our day," that's a little joke. They've probably hauled hundreds of barges. Americans use 'some' to de-exaggerate.

I was riding on the bus when day when people complimented a woman who was knitting a beautiful afghan with many elaborate cables, popcorns and zigzags in it. Her response (proud but restrained) was "I guess it's got some stiches in it."   Yes, it did, thousands of them.