# Billy Jo & the Tallahachie bridge
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 12, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227 "2003-09-12T16:32:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2003, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/1 "2003-09-12T16:32:11Z")
OK, I just heard this song again on the radio, and I remember there being some sort of controvery about what happened, and what “they” were dropping off that bridge and why. Any solid answers?
---
### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/2 "2003-09-12T16:46:07Z")
This is about a song, so I’ll move this thread to Cafe Society.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
---
### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2003, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/3 "2003-09-12T16:49:28Z")
Looks like somebody beat me to it. Either that or I’m just going crazy. Again.
---
### Author:  [@Bumbazine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbazine)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2003, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/4 "2003-09-12T16:49:40Z")
_WARNING_ not for the squeamish!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There was some speculation at the time that what ‘they’ reputedly tossed off the bridge was a baby, or fetus.
I warned you.
---
### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2003, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/5 "2003-09-12T17:01:52Z")
Why does it matter?
---
### Author:  [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2003, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/6 "2003-09-12T17:11:39Z")
Speculation! Get yer Billie Joe/ Tallahatchie Bridge speculation [here!!](http://www.geocities.com/odetobobbiegentry/ghannah.htm)
---
### Author:  [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2003, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/7 "2003-09-12T17:21:34Z")
[In the movie, Ode to Billie Joe,](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0074995/) they portrayed it as flowers, I think. 1976 was a long long time ago.
But the above link person has spent entirely too much time thinking about this song.
And **DrDeth** , thanks so very much for bringing up this song which is now STUCK IN MY HEAD!!
\<\\>
---
### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2003, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/8 "2003-09-12T17:34:34Z")
[Previous thread on this topic #1](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=172756)
[Previous thread on this topic #2](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=146654)
[Previous thread on this topic #3](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=52388)
[Previous thread on this topic #4](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=14127)
---
### Author:  [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2003, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/9 "2003-09-12T22:38:50Z")
Great Googly-Moogly! Not _this_ again!
---
### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/10 "2003-09-12T23:22:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by DeVena \*
> \*\*[In the movie, Ode to Billie Joe,](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0074995/) they portrayed it as flowers, I think. . . .\*\*The flowers were all the SHOWED in the movie, but it was clear that they were throwing the flowers on their baby’s water grave.
---
### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [September 12, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/11 "2003-09-12T23:29:38Z")
CODING VIOLATION!
[sub]must perview[/sub]
---
### Author:  [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/12 "2003-09-13T00:12:52Z")
“perview”? The coding weasels have gotten you.
(Yes, I’m trying to create a cliche. Help me.)
---
### Author:  [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/13 "2003-09-13T20:13:22Z")
In the movie, Glynnis O’Connor had a doll she had saved since early childhood named “Benjamin”. She used to tell Benjamin her troubles, much as some people pretend they are writing to a person when they make entries in a journal. (Anne Frank began her diary entries with “Dear Kitty”.) While they are talking, Benjamin is accidently knocked off of the bridge. Her boyfriend had learned that he is homosexual and, after he is impotent when Billy Jo attempts to make love to him, he kills himself in shame.
At the time the song was popular, Bobbi Gentry thought that Billy Jo had dropped her engagement ring off of the bridge. It was supposedly the custom at one time in some parts of the South to do this to signify that an engagement was irrevocably off. Billy Jo is a young girl, her parents might likely think she is too young to be engaged, she keeps the engagement secret, she and the boy meet at a secluded place to discuss their future, she breaks off the engagement that her parents never knew she had, and the boy kills himself in grief. It does all fit.
---
### Author:  [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/billy-jo-the-tallahachie-bridge/201227/14 "2003-09-13T20:14:45Z")
In the movie, Glynnis O’Connor had a doll she had saved since early childhood named “Benjamin”. She used to tell Benjamin her troubles, much as some people pretend they are writing to a person when they make entries in a journal. (Anne Frank began her diary entries with “Dear Kitty”.) While they are talking, Benjamin is accidently knocked off of the bridge. Her boyfriend had learned that he is homosexual and, after he is impotent when Billy Jo attempts to make love to him, he kills himself in shame.
At the time the song was popular, Bobbi Gentry thought that Billy Jo had dropped her engagement ring off of the bridge. It was supposedly the custom at one time in some parts of the South to do this to signify that an engagement was irrevocably off. Billy Jo is a young girl, her parents might likely think she is too young to be engaged, she keeps the engagement secret, she and the boy meet at a secluded place to discuss their future, she breaks off the engagement that her parents never knew she had, and the boy kills himself in grief. It does all fit.☹