It was the 3rd of
June, another sleepy, dusty, delta day
I was out chopping cotton, and my brother was building hay, oh yes he was,
and at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat, and mama hollered out the back door
Y 'all remember,
Wipe
Your
Feet.
And then she said, I heard the news today
from
Choctaw
Ridge.
They tell me
Billy
Joe
McGaster jumped off
the
Tallahatchie
Bridge.
Papa said to mama as he passed
around the black eyed peas
You know that
Billy
Joe never had a liquor since
I got five more acres
In the lower forty I got to plow
And
Mama said, you know
It was a shame about
Billy
Joe anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes
of any good up on
Choctaw
Ridge
An d now
Billy
Joe
McAllister jumped off the
Tallahatchie
Bridge
Brother said,
you know I recollect when me and
Tom and
Billy
Joe
put a frog down your back at the
Carroll
County
Picture
Show
Say, weren't you talkin' to
him at the church last
Sunday night?
Say, I have another piece of tea to buy.
You know it don't seem right.
You know I saw him at
the sawmill yesterday
Way up on
Chateau
Ridge
An d now you tell me
Billy
Joe's
Jumped off the
Tallahatchie
Bridge
Mama said to me, child,
what's happened to your appetite?
Well, I've been cooking all morning,
you ain't touched a single bite
You know that nice young preacher,
Brother
Taylor, stopped by today, and he said,
I'd be pleased to have been on
Sunday, or by the way.
I saw a girl that looked a lot like yours,
up on
Shoptown
Breeze
And she and
Billy
Joe were throwing something
off the
Tallahatchie
Bridge
Have mercy.
Well the 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 going around,
Papa caught it, and he died last spring,
and now
Mama
But doesn't feel like doing much,
much anyway