They have ‘em in Mississippi. Just watch the movie “Ode to Bille Joe”. Directed by none other than “Jethro” from the Beverly Hillbillies.
I guess Jed never got around to having a long talk with that boy.
And that in itself was propaganda, as the writer of the song-Bobby Gentry-said herself that she never knew what the object thrown off the bridge was, because that wasn’t the point. The point was the unthinking cruelty of people, in talking casual about Billy Joe’s death, not realism that the narrator loved him and was in pain.