Lyrics

[Verse 1] There is a house in a town called Brooks And in '45 a boy was born and blessed with good looks And charm, his father was Laverne Sr., but everybody Called him "Jocko," everybody called his new junior "Buddy" And Buddy's mother was Lottie Veronica, and after she'd Had Nellie Diane, Buddy rounded out the family When Jocko got a job with the county, it was time To move the Schaffers into Corning, it was '59 And Buddy was a teen drawing hot rods, listening to rock songs Cracking jokes, but then it was not long Before at 21, when the fun ended fast For even Buddy's bad ear couldn't save him from the draft And that's when Buddy went to Vietnam on his mission To serve in the Airborne 101st Division A helicopter gunner hovering above Saigon Buddy from Iowa could see that his childhood was gone [Chorus] A class clown joker always looking for fun A drinking smoker with a baby boy, he only had one And he is his father's son A smart-ass trouble maker since he was young Hard-living sarcastic sharp-tongued son of a gun And I am my father's son [Verse 2] Bud became a man among the battle and the madness But when he got back, he brought back some baggage and bad habits Scrapping, tossed out the local tavern, his palace And that is around the time when Bud met Alice In six months they were married, March of '71 And moved into a little house with her 6-year-old son It was three years before by a stroke of fate, see In '74 when Bud and Alice made me And his quartet dwelled for five years on 6th Street He was working at the garage or sipping beers and fishing Soon his habits turned to problems, booze and coke Jocko passed away, Bud's family unit broke And after his divorce, he moved back in with his mom And continued to use, a short fuse on a ticking bomb Crashed some cars, broke some hearts, man, people are strange Bud from Iowa could see it was time for a change [Chorus] A class clown joker always looking for fun A drinking smoker with a baby boy, he only had one And he is his father's son A smart-ass trouble maker since he was young Hard-living sarcastic sharp-tongued son of a gun And I am my father's son [Verse 3] By 1981, Dad's life had grown messy Then a woman named Ramona came along like a blessing Lovely and kind, a sign that life could be better But first and for himself he had to get his act together And that first step that he so needed in the worst way He checked into rehab on his son's 10th birthday Clean and sober, he'd never felt more alive Moved to Des Moines with Ramona, married in '85 He went from treatment straight to training and in '90 became A certified addiction counselor, a life with new aim Worked in hospitals and prisons helping other troubled persons His demons hadn't beaten him, instead they gave him purpose Laverne Dean "Bud" Schaffer Jr. is a survivor A veteran and a healer, Mr. Fix-It like MacGuyver A gamer and a runner and a man with many titles A bad motherfucker, my dad and my idol [Chorus] A class clown joker always looking for fun A drinking smoker with a baby boy, he only had one And he is his father's son A smart-ass trouble maker since he was young Hard-living sarcastic sharp-tongued son of a gun And I am my father's son