i always interpreted this song as a rich southern teenage girl becoming pregnant by a poor southern nobody guy. When "somebody said she'd gone to her sister's" she had really been sent to a home for unwed mothers.
when a pregnant girl was sent to live with a relative she was often sent to one of these homes. she would give birth, adopt the baby out and return "like nothing really happened".
i don't really hear anything about abortion, as many have said before. but i could be, and most likely are, wrong.
i always interpreted this song as a rich southern teenage girl becoming pregnant by a poor southern nobody guy. When "somebody said she'd gone to her sister's" she had really been sent to a home for unwed mothers. when a pregnant girl was sent to live with a relative she was often sent to one of these homes. she would give birth, adopt the baby out and return "like nothing really happened". i don't really hear anything about abortion, as many have said before. but i could be, and most likely are, wrong.