It was the third of june another sleepy dusty delta day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was bailin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered at the back door you all remember to wipe your feet
And then she said I got some news this morning from Choctaw Ridge
Today Billy Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black eyed pees
"Well Billy Joe never had a lick of sense. Pass the Biscuits please."
There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow
And Mama said it's a shame about BIlly Joe anyhow
Seems like nothing ever comes to no good upon Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe McAllister's jumped of 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
And wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night
I'll have another piece of apple pie.You know it don't seem right
I saw him at the saw mill yesterday up on Choctaw Ridge
And now you tell me Billy Joe has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Mama said to me child what's happened to your appetite
I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite
That nice young preacher brother Taylor dropped by today
Said he be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh by the way
He said he saw a girl who looked a lot like up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and Billy Joe were throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge
A year has come and gone since we heard the news about Billy Joe
Brother married Becky Thompson and they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus goin' 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 spent a lot of time picking flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop 'em into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
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