It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty,
delta day
I was out chopping cotton and my brother was baling hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered at the back door,
y'all remember,
to wipe your feet
And then she said,
I got some news this morning from Choctaw Ridge
Today Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas
Oh Billy Joe never had a liquor since,
pass the biscuits please
There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow
Mama said it was a shame about Billy Joe anyhow
Seems like nothing ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
Now Billy Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billy Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County Picture Show
Was I talking to him at the church last Sunday night?
I'll have another piece of apple pie,
you know it don't seem right
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge
And now you tell me Billy Joe has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And Mama said to me,
child,
what's happened to your appetite?
Well I've been cooking all morning
and you haven't touched a single bite
And that nice young preacher brother Taylor dropped by today
Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday
Oh by the way
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
She and Billy Joe was throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge
A year has come and gone since we've heard the news about Billy Joe
Brother married Becky Thompson,
they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going round,
Papa caught it and he died last spring
And now Mama doesn't seem to want to do
much of anything
And me,
I spend a lot of time picking flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And dropping them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge