Ode to Billy Joe The 5th Dimension

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta
Day
I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the
House to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door "y'all remember to
Wipe your feet"
And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from
Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billy Joe Macallister jumped off the
Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed
Peas
"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 was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw
Ridge
And now Billy Joe Macallister's jumped off the
Tallahatchie Bridge

And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and
Billie 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 sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge"
"And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the
Tallahatchie Bridge"