Information: www.thepossumdrop.com.
New York may have the Times Square Drop and Atlanta, the Peach Drop. But Tallapoosa, less than an hour west of Atlanta, has the Possum Drop.
Before you get all worked up about animal rights, Spencer, who gets lowered in a globe at midnight, isn’t playing opossum. He died by the side of the road years ago before his large carcass was salvaged and mounted by taxidermist Bud Jones, 84, born and raised in Tallapoosa.
Why a opossum, you ask?
Duh, the city was originally known as Possum Snout. And if you think the Possum Drop, which also features musical acts and a Possum King and Queen, is just for the city folk of Tallapoosa, you are wrong. Last year, the event drew 4,000 people, a thousand more than Tallapoosa’s population.
“It isn’t just a country hick thing,” Jones said. “People go plumb wild. It is amazing.”
Q: Will you tell us more about the Possum Drop?
A: I guess it was about 15 years ago when the folks around here decided to drop a opossum as part of its New Year’s Eve celebration. They called me one day and said, “Do have you have a mounted opossum that we can borrow.” I did. I had been driving down the road one day and found a opossum that a car had hit. I mounted it hanging by its tail. The folks have named him Spencer after one of our founding fathers, Ralph Spencer.
Q: How do you spell opossum, with the o or without the o?
A: It is opossum, with an o. The real name is Didelphis virginianus. The folks here dropped the o.
Q: What do you think about the opossum?
A: When I was a teenage boy, my daddy used to take us opossum hunting. It was a great thrill. I never did eat one but some people did. The opossum is one of the few animals that have survived since prehistoric times. I have a great respect for it.
Q: Was Spencer a special opossum?
A: Just a regular possum. He was a big ole possum.
Q: Are you surprised that the Possum Drop has become so popular?
A: I sure am. When midnight comes, they lower Spencer down from one of the tall buildings. We don’t have very many tall buildings. When they lower him down, people start hootin’ and hollerin’ and taking pictures. You’d think that Clark Gable had come back to life.
Q: Where does Spencer stay?
A: Here at my shop. Over the years, he has been handled so much that his toes are broken off and he has suffered some wear and tear. I got another opossum mounted for use in a year or two when Spencer wears out. He will be Spencer Jr.
Q: Where did he come from?
A: Same place. Road kill.
Q: How did you become a taxidermist?
A: I had always been interested in wildlife. When I was in 16, I took a correspondence course in the mail. In 1957, I moved to Wyoming for a year and I worked in a taxidermy shop out there. When I came back, my taxidermy business just grew and grew. I have been doing it for 60 some odd years.
Q: Do you like what you do?
A: Most people think that taxidermy is stuffing animals with rags and cotton — it is a lot more than that. My wife is a taxidermist and so is my daughter. We have mounted a life-sized elephant for the Anniston Museum of Natural History over in Alabama. We made a life-sized prehistoric mastodon for the South Carolina State Museum. We do big things and little birds and anything that comes along — as long as it is legal.
Q: How does the Possum Drop make you feel?
A: I am very proud. Our restaurants sell out that night. It is a good thing for our town.
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