New Year’s Eve in Times Square? Meh. The real action is in Tallapoosa, Georgia.

That’s where Bud and Jackie Jones, career taxidermists, live. They helped establish a completely different kind of New Year’s Eve tradition in their small town.

Bud and Jackie came to StoryCorps recently to share the love story that helped launch it all.

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Since the Tallapoosa Possum Drop began in the late 1990s, the event has grown from about 40 people to over 7,000 in attendance. That’s more than twice the population of Tallapoosa itself.

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Top photo: Bud and Jackie Jones pose after their StoryCorps interview in Tallapoosa, GA in September 2018. By Kelly Moffitt for StoryCorps.
Middle photo: Bud and Jackie Jones pose together in 1963. Courtesy Bud Jones.
Bottom photo: Bud and Jackie Jones pose near “Spencer” at the Possum Drop in Tallapoosa, GA in 2014. Courtesy Bud Jones.

Originally aired December 28, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition.