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It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty, delta day |
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I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay |
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And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat |
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And Mama hollered out the back door, "Y'all remember to wipe your feet" |
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Then she said, "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge |
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Today Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge" |
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Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas |
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"Well, Billie Joe never had a lick o' sense, pass the biscuits, please |
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There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow" |
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And Mama said it was a shame about Billie Joe anyhow |
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Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge |
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And now Billie Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
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Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe |
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Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show |
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And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night |
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I'll have another piece of apple pie, you know, it don't seem right |
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I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge |
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And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
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Mama said to me, "Child what's happened to your appetite? |
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I been cookin' all mornin' and you haven't touched single bite |
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That nice young preacher Brother Taylor dropped by today |
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Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh by the way |
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He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge |
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And she and Billie Joe was throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge" |
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A year has come and gone since I heard the news 'bout Billie Joe |
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Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo |
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There was a virus goin' round, papa caught it and he died last spring |
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And now Mama doesn't seem to want to do much of anything |
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And me I spend a lot of time picking flowers up on Choctaw Ridge |
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And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge |
