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1. 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 at the back door, "Y'all remember to wipe your feet!"
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And then she said, "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge.
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Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge."
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2. And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas,
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"Oh, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please.
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There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plough."
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and Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow.
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”Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge,
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and now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”
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3. And 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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4. And Mama said to me, "Child, what's happened to your appetite?
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I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a 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 Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
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5. A year has come 'n' gone since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe,
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and Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo.
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There was a virus going 'round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring,
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and now Mama doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything.
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And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge,
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and drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
(Bobbie Gentry)
