"What did Billy Joe throw off the Tallahatchee Bridge?" Topic

Doug Kershaw was briefly married to Bobbie Gentry. He quipped that they got divorced because she wouldn't tell him what Billy Joe McAllister threw off the Tallahatchie bridge.

I say it was his 15mm Napoleonics.

Wife, ex-girlfriend, or mistress?

A box of wargaming-related poll suggestions. We've been looking for them ever since.

I thought he threw himself off the bridge?

A set of dice that rolled poorly for him.

Ask me on the third of June.

A good song, but has only a passing similarity to the later movie. My take is that it was a stillborn baby. A downer idea, but it fits the lyrics, and heck, that song is kind of a vein-opener anyway.

Engagement ring. She broke up with him. Thought he was seeing another girl. He killed himself.

Joe Collins

I think he threw her doll off the bridge (obviously before he took the plunge himself). I can't remember why though. I do remember that Bobbie Gentry was hot, hot, hot.

CVA31bhr, I always thought the same thing.

Here in Alabama there are several bridges over Tallahattchie Creek. Well known around here as it is the site that DeSoto meet the Kosa or Coosa tribe. They even found two gold Hapsburg coins from the era on the bank.
Legend here says that he threw a baby off the bridge.

Bricoles?

Eric

I do remember that Bobbie Gentry was hot, hot, hot.

Now I know exactly what Buster Poindexter's hit was about:

YouTube link

The Emmett Till incident started very close to the same bridge, and his body was dumped into the Tallahatchie River. Bobby Gentry has never associated the song with that event, as far as I know, but that shouldn't stop us from speculating.

Maybe Billie Joe was one of Till's murderers and killed himself in remorse. That doesn't help us figure out what he and the song's narrator threw off the bridge the day before.

Flowers, just like he used to do with Bobbie Jo.