THE TILL SHEET OF NEW BERLIN

to the tune of "The City of New Orleans"

1987 GSA Southeastern Minnesota Field Trip -

based on a concept by Tony Fleming

Diggin' in the drumlins of New Berlin,

Michigan ice lobe, Woodfordian stage,

there's 15 cars and 15 restless students,

3 professors, 25 sacks of till.

Ridin' on a southbound odyssey,

the glacier pulls out of Kewaunee,

rumblin' past the drumlins and moraines.

Overriding older tills,

and smoothing out the bedrock hills,

these sandy tills, they all look just the same.

Chorus:

Good mornin' the Wisconsinan is dawnin'.

Don't you know me, I'm your native till.

I'm the till named for the city of New Berlin.

I'll retreat 500 miles when the ice is still.

Tradin' names with the old men at the Survey,

plenty of tills ain't no one keepin' score,

pass the abstract form that holds the answer,

haven't we all been through this all before?

And all the towns and names it seems,

merge in stratigraphic dreams,

this sheet of ice still ain't heard the news.

We all went west to see the kames,

but Hallberg went and changed the names,

this till has got the stratigraphic blues.

Chorus:

Studyin' the till sheet of New Berlin,

changin' names at the Illinois boundary,

Haegar, Wedron, Wadsworth, and the Oak Creek,

it's the till that's got a weird identity.

And when we collected that old wood,

it never gave the date it should,

and someone said "It must be Sangamon",

and we all went south to old Urbana,

to hear Johy Frye yell "It's Roxana"!

But Ardith said "It's just diamicton".

Chorus: