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What Was Thrown Off the Tallahatchie Bridge?

Think back, think way back... it's 1967 and the voice on the AM starts:

It was the third of June,
another sleepy, dusty Delta day.
I was out choppin' cotton
and my brother was balin' hay.

Midway through the song the preacher says the other day he saw a girl with Billy Joe throwing something off the bridge. What was thrown? Anybody from Choctaw Ridge have an answer?

BTW, the real Tallahatchie Bridge collapsed in 1972.
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ncarv
983 posts
 
A fetus, I believe.
jburidan
803 posts
 
Bose surround sound
skeyebox
27 posts
 
Avguygeorge
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gliderguider
294 posts
 
Her illegitimate baby.
coffee_nudge
120 posts
 
Holy moly...talk about a walk down memory lane......

If memory serves correctly, the song was cryptic enough where nobody could really figure out what was being thrown off the bridge....baby, flowers, or whatever.

I think in the movie version (with Robbie Benson and Glynnis O'Connor), good ol' Billy Joe had one of them homosexual encounters, and done kilt himself over the guilt. Then, Bobbie, finding out she was pregnant with his babushka after he done kilt himself, tosses either the baby (cause she can't raise the kid without him) or flowers (cause she misses him so much) off the bridge.

That's my recollection....but I make no guarantees.....and I don't think there is a definitive answer.
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