Editor’s Note: Ask The Fiddler is a lifestyle advice column that aims to remedy more chaos and confusion than it creates. Questions may be submitted to us here at Art of the Prank, and good luck.
Dear Fiddler:
I”™m wondering if Billy Joe McAllister could possibly have survived his leap off the Tallahatchie Bridge?
Fran in Frisco
Dear Fran:
So, what do you figure? He crawled ashore and headed off to start a new life, somewhere far away from Choctaw Ridge? I”™m with you, for a couple of reasons. I”™ll get to that, but I have to say we face formidable opposition.
Based on a heap of chatter on the Internet, most people, probably rightly, take Bobbie Gentry”™s ode as a lament for the dead. One site I was looking at, there was so much gab, I quit reading. But it seemed like the whole gang there believed Billy Joe was a goner.
By the way, in the original lyric Billy is Billie. You”™ll find it spelled wrong in a lot of places that should know better.
Jumping, of course, is a popular way to get dead. Think of Paul Simon”™s “Save the Life of My Child,” or the fate of the swagman in Waltzing Matilda. Think about it, what state — other than the really flat ones — doesn”™t have a Lover”™s Leap, even several, with some tragic tale attached?
Looking back to ancient times, I”™m reminded of that noted vegetarian philosopher Empedocles who believed himself divine. He jumped into a volcano to prove it. He didn”™t reappear in human or divine form, so much for philosophy. Continue reading “Ask The Fiddler #14: Fiddler: What Really Happened to Billy Joe McAllister?”