While people have been debating the meaning of Ode to Billie Joe for over 40 years, one piece of evidence is a sheet from a yellow legal pad with Bobbie Gentry’s original song lyrics… The entire set of original lyrics have not been posted to the Web, but the University of Mississippi’s Archives and Special Collections have posted the first page of the lyrics, which include a previously unpublished first verse with the first line crossed out:
Sally Jane Ellison’s been missing since the first week in June.
People don’t see Sally Jane in town any more.
There’s a lot o’ speculatin’, she’s not actin’ like she did before.
Some say she knows more than she’s willin’ to tell.
But she stays quiet and a few think it’s just as well.
No one really knows what went on up on Choctaw Ridge
the day that Billy Jo McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
The Little Tallahatchie River flows through the small town of Money, Mississippi. Money MS is named after US Senator Hernando Money, and Tallahatchie is a Choctaw name meaning “rock of waters”.
61 years ago this coming Sunday, on 28 August 1955, a 14-year old boy, Emmett Till from Chicago, who was visiting relatives in Money MS, was murdered there. Young Emmett had flirted with a 21 year old girl named Carolyn Bryant. Carolyn Bryant was white, and Emmett Till was black. Carolyn Bryant took offense at the action. Soon after, Bryant’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half brother JW Milam, went after Emmett Till and dragged him away at gunpoint.
Emmett Till’s body was found in the Tallahatchie River. The murderers, Milam and Bryant, were acquitted.
Robert Emmett O’Neill was an American professional baseball player and former Major League Baseball pitcher. He played with the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox. He batted and threw right-handed during his baseball career. O’Neill died in Sparks, Nevada at the age of 75.
Three players have been honored by both the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame: Gary Carter, Ferguson Jenkins, and Jackie Robinson. The only Canadian among them is former Chicago Cubs pitcher Jenkins. Carter and Robinson were Americans who played in Montreal - Carter for the Expos, and Robinson for the minor league Royals.
The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is locat d in St. Marys, Ontario. It is roughly mid-way between Toronto and Detroit. St. Marys is very near to where the first recorded baseball game took place in North America. That took place in Beachville, Ontario which is 30 minutes south of St. Marys on June 4, 1838 and was written about by St. Marys native Adam Ford in the 1886 Sporting Life magazine.
“The once widely accepted story that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839 has been conclusively debunked by sports historians” (pasted from Wikipedia).
Abner Coburn (1803-1885) was the 30th Governor of Maine, from 1863 to 1864. He later served as the Chair of the Colby College Board of Trustees from 1874 until his death in 1885. Upon his death in 1885, Coburn left 12 acres to the town of Skowhegan to make a public park.
Some early public parks include the La Alameda de Hércules, in Seville, a promenaded public mall, urban garden and park built in 1574, within the historic center of Seville; and the City Park, in Budapest, Hungary, which was property of the Batthyány family and was later made public.
David “Dave” Seville is a fictional character, the manager of the fictional singing group Alvin and the Chipmunks. The character was created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., who used the name “David Seville” as his stage name before the creation of the Chipmunks, while recording novelty records in the 1950s. One of the records, recorded under the David Seville stage name, was “Witch Doctor”, featuring the distinctive “Chipmunk” sped-up high-pitched vocal technique that he later used in “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)”
A chipmunk’s cheeks can expand to three times the size of its head. Chipmunks have pouches in their cheeks where they hold their food until they get back to store it in their burrows.
In some vertebrates, markings on the cheek area (malar stripes/spots/…), particularly immediately beneath the eye, often serve as important distinguishing features between species or individuals.
Eyes are restricted to a small range of electromagnetic spectrum; this varies from creature to creature, but is mainly between wavelengths of 400 and 700 nm. This is a rather small section of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum, probably reflecting the submarine evolution of the eye: water blocks out all but two small windows of the EM spectrum, and there has been no evolutionary pressure among land animals to broaden this range.
Many instances of submarines being ‘caught’ by fishing vessels are on record. The USS Nautilus, world’s first nuclear powered vessel, was caught in a fish net and towed the fishing vessel several miles before the situation was cleared up. There is one instance of a submarine being captured by an abandoned balloon, and on another occasion a submarine rescued a blimp and towed it to safety.
Larger than (but resembling) a blimp, the world’s longest aircraft—the Airlander 10 airship—has crash-landed today after a test flight in Bedfordshire, central England.
Last month’s hot air balloon accident where 16 died happened near Lockhart TX and Maxwell TX, near the intersection of Jolly Rd. and Cistern Rd.
>> Address, Google Maps: 299 Cistern Rd, Lockhart TX
From that address, head NE on Jolly Rd. Right after the left bend, on the east side of Jolly Rd. and beneath the power lines that run from SW to NE along the N side of Jolly Rd., is where the balloon’s gondola finally landed (from this image: goo.gl/psjGyk)
To add to my post # 31352, here is the balloon crash location’s Google Maps link: Google Maps.
My sister lives just west of San Marcos, and the balloon crash was just east of San Marcos, maybe 20 minutes away. We’ve been to New Braunfels, Wimberley, San Antonio, and other points in the Hill Country. I recall seeing hot air balloons in the early mornings there above Hays County.
That is my interest, and this was such a terrible tragedy and an awful way to die, to go so quickly from enjoying the view and the ballooning experience, to FIRE! and they’re still high in the air and burning up. Just awful, terrible.
The San Marcos, Texas center (referred to locally as “the square”) was laid out in 1851 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Hays County Courthouse, which sits in the center, was built in 1908. The downtown area surrounding the courthouse is home to many of the city’s bars, restaurants, boutiques, and music venues, making it a top entertainment destination. The Marc, directly across the street from the courthouse, hosted the 2011, 2012, and 2013 Lone Star Music Awards.
Gruene (“green”) Hall, in New Braunfels, Texas, bills itself as “the oldest continually run dance hall in Texas.” It as built in 1878. Its dance floor is 6,000 ft² big. It was used as a set for the movie Michael (1996) starring John Travolta.
