March

Just about any food that will fit in a deep fryer is available in abundance at the Strawberry Festival. The town ofabout 6,500 swells to 350,000-plus during the three-day event. King Joe Perrin and Queen Brooke Perrin on their private float.strawberries. The annual Strawberry Festivalbegan in 1972, but even that couldn’tstop the town’s decline.By the late 1980s Pine Street, Ponchatoula’smain thoroughfare where most ofthe businesses were located, had seenmany of its doors close. That’s when asmall group of concerned citizens, manyof them left with empty buildings, cameup with the idea of turning Ponchatoulainto an antiques mecca.The endeavor drew a profusion ofantiques stores and related businessesto the downtown area. It was a successbeyond their wildest dreams, Perrinsaid. By the time of our first visit to Ponchatoulain 1993, nearly two dozen antiqueshops occupied the false-frontbrick buildings on Pine Street.We could hardly believe this town almostceased to exist when now sidewalks,restaurants and shops werepacked with visitors, and cars in thesteady stream of traffic bore licenseplates from every state in the Union.We’ve visited Ponchatoula severaltimes since 1993, but our last trip wasright around the three-day 2011 StrawberryFestival. Fewer farmers are growingstrawberries these days – only abouta dozen in the area – but the succulentred berries continue to be a mainstay ofthe local economy.MORE TO LOVEStrawberries and antiques might be excellentreasons to come to Ponchatoula,but the town and surrounding area offermore. This year we came for the StrawberryFestival but arrived three daysearly to revisit places we’d been in pastyears and to explore new ones.Our first stop was the CollinswoodMuseum, moved here from its originalsite one mile west and opened as a museumon its centennial in 1976. Much ispacked into this former one-roomschool: 10,000-year-old Native Americanrelics; antique quilts, toys, clothingand others; Civil War, railroad and earlyfarming artifacts; early photos of thetown and more. Admission is free.Across Pine Street the historic railroaddepot, the third to stand on thesite, has been transformed into PonchatoulaCountry Market, where local artisansoffer their wares. These include ceramics,photography, stained glass,handmade jewelry, elaborate towelcakes, jams and preserves, pickled quaileggs, and more. Just outside, in a largewire enclosure with a pond, is 9-footlong Old Blue Eyes, the town alligatorwho also “writes” a column for his localnewspaper, the Ponchatoula Times.We later spent an afternoon checkingout the antiques stores, still numerousenough for Ponchatoula to keep itstitle. These include Boyer Antiques andDoll Shop, C.J.’s Antiques and Collectibles,Mary’s Antiques, Oldies &Goodies, Roussel’s Antique Shop, Acquisitionsof the Bygone and Trails EndAntiques, all on Pine Street(there are others elsewhere).Near closingtime we spentan enjoyable hourchatting with C.J. Scandurro(of C.J.’s) in his cavernous15,200-squarefootfacility, which he purchasedin 1993 and todayfeatures 40 booths brimming withall sorts of intriguing collectibles.Ponchatoula’s surrounding area (withina 20-mile radius) also offers much tovisitors. We particularly recommend theAfrican-American Heritage Museum inHammond (new since our last visit), GlobalWildlife Center at Folsom, Kliebert’s Turtleand Alligator Farm in Hammond,Amato’s Winery at Independence and LiuzzaProduce Farm near Tickfaw.The African-American Museum, with8,500 square feet of exhibit space, displaysa host of wood carvings from Africa,a magnificent mounted lion, 22 muralsdepicting African and African-Americanhistory, historic slave sale documents andmore. Director George Perkins said themuseum, which opened in 2007, “preservesand discovers our culture.”CRITTERS ARE EVERYWHEREGlobal Wildlife Center is one of our favoriteplaces. The preserve, the largest facilityof its kind in the United States, wasfounded in 1991 on 900 grassy acres thatlook remarkably similar to the sparselytreed savannas of East Africa.“Here visitors are confined [to safariwagons] and the animals roam free,”TRAILER LIFE March 2012 49Go To:.comUser GuideContents