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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)