>>I remember the song 'Eatin Goober Peas' and 'The Erie Canal'
>
>Never heard of the first one. I was raised in upstate NY so the 2nd one I think I know. Is it the one about "fifteen miles on the Erie Canal" and something about "loading bales?" What part of the country did you go to school?
>

In fact, there are two different songs about the Erie Canal, the one you cite (which I don't know very well) and one starts:

We were 40 miles from Albany,
Forget it I never shall
What a terrible storm we had one night
On the Er-i-e Canal

Tamar