Last June 3rd there was another Ode to Billy Joe thread and someone posted an explanation of the song supposedly from Bobbie Gentry, although given many years later. The song, she said, was not about whatever was thrown from the bridge, or even about Billy Joe. The song was about the flow of life and death, and the casual way in which Billy Joe’s death was discussed over dinner along with other minutia and the general lack of interest it provoked.
That’s always the way I took it.