Lyrics:

**lf**It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day**lf**I was out choppin'' cotton, and my brother was balin'' hay**lf**And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat**lf**And Mama hollered out the back door, ''Y''all, remember to wipe your feet!''**lf**And then she said, ''I got some news this mornin'' from Choctaw Ridge**lf**Today, Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge''**lf****lf**And Papa said to Mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas**lf**''Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please**lf**There''s five more acres in the lower forty I''ve got to plow''**lf**And Mama said it was shame about Billie Joe, anyhow**lf**Seems like nothin'' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge**lf**And now Billie Joe MacAllister''s jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge**lf****lf**And brother said he recollected when he, and Tom, and Billie Joe**lf**Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show**lf**And wasn''t I talkin'' to him after church last Sunday night?**lf**''I''ll have another piece-a apple pie; you know, it don''t seem right**lf**I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge**lf**And now you tell me Billie Joe''s jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge''**lf****lf**Mama said to me, ''Child, what''s happened to your appetite?**lf**I''ve been cookin'' all mornin'', and you haven''t touched a single bite**lf**That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today**lf**Said he''d be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way**lf**He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge**lf**And she and Billie Joe was throwin'' somethin'' off the Tallahatchie Bridge''**lf****lf**A year has come and gone since we heard the news ''bout Billie Joe**lf**And brother married Becky Thompson; they bought a store in Tupelo**lf**There was a virus going ''round; Papa caught it, and he died last spring**lf**And now Mama doesn''t seem to want to do much of anything**lf**And me, I spend a lot of time pickin'' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge**lf**And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge