Regarding Billy Joe MacAllister, Kerry asks:
<< And didn't he jump because he thought he was gay? I'm just going by the
movie with Robbie Benson. :>) I wonder if that's what she intended when she
wrote the song. >>
I can see throwing Robbie Benson off the Tallahatchie bridge, but not because
of his sexuality!
The song never says what was thrown off the bridge. But what would the singer
and Billy Joe have been throwing off the bridge if he had been questioning
his sexuality? His pocketbook? A Damron guide? His gay membership card?
When the song came out -- in simpler times, when everyone would discuss
something like this for months -- I remember that people most often used to
guess that they were throwing a miscarried or aborted fetus, some kind of
birth control pills or device or drugs from the bridge. And if Bobbie Gentry
ever knew what was chucked over the bridge, I don't think she ever told.
--Bob
