# It's Billie Joe McCallister Day 2017 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 3, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013 "2017-06-03T16:30:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/1 "2017-06-03T16:30:38Z")
After lunch, there’s 5 more acres in the lower 40 I’ve got to plow… [Bobbie Gentry singing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZt5Q-u4crc) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/2 "2017-06-03T16:50:03Z")
Pass the biscuits, please. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/3 "2017-06-03T19:46:21Z")
Seems like nothin’ ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/4 "2017-06-03T20:47:36Z")
A year has come and gone since we had a thread 'bout BillyJoe. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/5 "2017-06-03T21:02:29Z")
I wondered why that song suddenly got going through my head. (In the Delta, where you can chop cotton and bale hay on the same day!) ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/6 "2017-06-03T22:05:54Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > A year has come and gone since we had a thread 'bout BillyJoe. winner 😃 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/7 "2017-06-03T22:44:18Z")
In honor of this day, lets all go down to the Tallahatchie bridge and throw stuff off there. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/8 "2017-06-04T00:07:12Z")
Not only is it Billie Joe McCallister Day, but it’s the 50th! (The song debuted in 1967) ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/9 "2017-06-04T00:34:48Z")
For a bit of added significance, today Gregg Allman was buried. ---
**Author:** ![I.Dunno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@I.Dunno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I.Dunno)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/10 "2017-06-04T00:52:23Z")
> [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](#): > > Not only is it Billie Joe McCallister Day, but it’s the 50th! > > (The song debuted in 1967) Wow, Billie Joe’s been gone 50 years now? No wonder I’m having trouble remembering what he looked like. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/11 "2017-06-04T01:21:20Z")
I probably asked this in another of these threads, but don’t believe I ever got answered (probably because there is no answer): The narrator says in the last verse that “a year has come and gone” and then that Papa “died last spring.” Now, it’s June 3rd, 2017, and if I said (today) that something happened “last spring” I’d mean spring of 2016. The spring a year ago. But clearly the narrator doesn;t mean “the spring a year ago” because at that point Papa was very much alive, plowing the lower forty and passing around black-eyed peas. So doesn’t she mean “Papa caught it and he died **this** spring”? Why doesn’t she say so? Okay, it doesn’t keep me awake nights, I have other things to take care of _that_, but still, inquiring minds want to know! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/12 "2017-06-04T01:32:13Z")
I think for a lot of people, Summer begins on June 1 or thereabouts. Summer: June- Aug Fall: Sept-Nov Winter: Dec-Feb Spring: Mar-May ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/13 "2017-06-04T02:10:54Z")
Biscuits? Please? ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/14 "2017-06-04T03:33:48Z")
You know, it don’t seem right. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/15 "2017-06-04T03:52:14Z")
Why is it always a sleepy, dusty Delta day? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/16 "2017-06-04T04:14:21Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Why is it always a sleepy, dusty Delta day? That was the point of the song; life in her small town is a safe but boring routine. She had one chance to escape by running away with Billie Joe. But she got scared of the risk and said no. Now Billie Joe’s dead and she’s going to live the rest of her life in the town she grew up in and have the same life her mother had. So the singer isn’t just mourning Billie Joe; she’s mourning her lost opportunities for a bigger (albeit more uncertain) life. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/17 "2017-06-04T15:03:01Z")
Do you s’pose that virus is still goin’ 'round? ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/18 "2017-06-04T15:06:56Z")
Ok, if we put Ode To Billie Joe in one corner, and Alice’s Restaurant Massacree in another, and rang a bell and they came out swinging…what do you think would happen? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/19 "2017-06-04T16:31:05Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Ok, if we put Ode To Billie Joe in one corner, and Alice’s Restaurant Massacree in another, and rang a bell and they came out swinging…what do you think would happen? That’s it – Billie Joe faked his death and ended up at Woodstock! He now runs a locovore bacon, pesto & weed shop in the Lower Haight. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013/20 "2017-06-04T16:52:40Z")
Could a whole year have come and gone already? [Ray Charles](https://youtu.be/NmlZEbs_z-c) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-billie-joe-mccallister-day-2017/788013.md?page=2)