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| December 26, 1985 The Ponchatoula Times |  |
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I
I
to Main Street
FROM PAGE ONE
partial relief for the multitude o!
problems caused locally by the road
project, which dragged on at a snail's
pace for month after month while family
businesses downtown were driven out
of existence, with customers driven off
by torn up roads, barricades, mud, and
botched jobs that had to be done and
redone again in order to meet specifi-
cations.
At least the comfortable and familiar
angle parking was to be left alone,
giving small businesses added space for
customers and the same ease of
shopping afforded by modern shopping
malls and supermarket parking lots
which have angle parking for their
customer's convenience.
Wednesday's betrayal by the
government was, for many, the ultimate
and final insult, the last proverbial straw,
the final injury done to a long-suffered
downtown shopping district. And
merchants reacted with shock, hurt,
and anger. "Which of our government
leaders lied to us? Was it our state
government or was it our local politi-
cians," asked an irate Hardy Richardson,
owner of Hardy's Ace Hardware,
whose main street storefront parking
can not accommodate only two and a
half cars "1 have more clerks inside
than parking spaces outside," he
fumed.
It was the same up and down the
close-knit "Ponchatoula Mall," and a
visit Wednesday to the street by the
mayor, who pointedly parked his car on
a diagonal angle, did little to brighten
the outlook of merchants Gideon him-
self said "Have been hurt too much
already" by the highway project.
Those merchants who optimistically
hoped the lanes being painted on the
downtown business street would still
allow the promised angle parking, had
their hopes dashed in what many said
was cruel fashion.
Ponchatoula descended on the main
shopping area before the new lane
markings were fully dry and at the
instruction of elected Police Chief
Ernest Peltier, who said he got his
orders from the Highway Department,
began issuing warning tickets to
shoppers and merchants who were
parked in the traditional manner on
main street.
"Look at this ticket, can you believe
it?" demanded Country Cobbler co-
owner Mrs. Jackie Caste]l, who
described for The Times the scene
which transpired before the unbelieving
eyes of downtown merchants.
"Customers were running out of
stores up and down main street, afraid
they're cars were being ticketed. They
moved them and just kept on driving. It
emptied the downtown shopping district,"
said Castell, who said she was ordered
by officers out of her shop and told to
immediately move her car.
Shocked merchants contacted the
mayor who challenged Pehier to
produce a written order to ticket the
cars, or to produce a city ordiance
to:bidding the diagonal parking. The
police chief then agreed to call off his
men until the city council could address
the issue at special meeting set for
Saturday, December 21.
The mayor, meanwhile, is trying to
salvage what he can of the shattered
state promises:
"When Sen. Hinton found out what
happened he hit the ceiling. We got a
call into the offices of the Secretary of
DOTD Robert Graves, who repeated
what he had said earlier, that after his
crews left Ponchatoula could do what
they wanted with that first block. He
denied he threatened to bring in state
police to enforce parallel parking, as the
Joel McWilliams faction had
threatened.
"l am now waiting for a list of
merchants who want the parking in that
to be diagonal. When l last asked Mrs.
Betty Cutrer (owner of Cutter's Grocery)
downtown) she said there were already
four pages of signatures, l intend to
show these to the city council at their
special meeting Saturday morning. I'm
not going to give up yet," vowed
Gideon.
Bureaucrats with the highway depart-
ment have pulled the same trick on local
politicians elsewhere in the state.
Wounds are still fresh after seven years
in St. Tammany Parish, where the
"Mardi Gras Massacre" of the parish's
most historic oak grove is still a living
memory.
There the parish police jury, U.S.
Rep. Robert Livingston and a host of
state senators and representatives were
assured a historic oak grove barely
touching the right-of-way of an obscure
service road in Chinchuba near Mande-
ville would not be cut, as originally
planned by the highway department.
Citizens groups who expressed concern
that the site of the first Christian chapel
in this part of the state, the scene of the
baptism of thousands of Choctaw
Indians be spared, were also assured by
the state highway bureaucrats that no
harm would come to the ancient oaks.
It was Mardi Gras morning, 1978,
when the chain saws started up at
dawn. Before anyone could stop them
the oak grove was destroyed. The high-
way department had secretly kept to its
original plan.
Ponchatoula
gets $366,357
to improve area
Staff Report
Ponchatoula got a happy Christmas
message from the governor's office
Friday, approval of a Community
Development Block Grant worth
$366,357 from the governor's office.
Mayor Charles Gideon said the
money will be used in the Jackson Road
area of southwest Ponchatoula to
provide sewerage and resurfacing of
streets.
A delegation from Ponchatoula
headed by Gideon and including repre-
sentatives of A.J. Zabbia and Associ-
ates who applied for the money for the
city, and members of the city council,
will travel to Baton Rouge Monday to
pick up the check, said the mayor.
• Hardhide
Hey Sherman l-*hares, what's that you've been cutting on main street,
diamonds? l thought it was glass! Anyway, l couldn't believe the huge new
site on Hwy. 51 at Barringer and next to my buddy Mickey's One Stop
Floor Covering that is rumored to be your brand new Sherman's Glass and,
Radiator. Congratulations to a man with class, Sherman of Shermap's,
Glass.
i
Hey Dave, is it true you've been unrolling carpet after carpet trying to find
your Cleopatra that you misplaced at the big Pflanze Hotel bash?
And hey Brad and Cindy Craord, I didn't know you could slam dancei
to Blues, at the big Aw Shucks Jay Grijs and Luther Kent concert Thurs-<
day night, q
I had better wrap this 'up because I see Pinchpenny coming down the:
street now to pick up my weekly column, written for your pleasure withl
waterproof ink every week here at the Ponchatoula pond. But speaking o| ,
wrapping up, if you think live chicken snacks are a bit messy, 1 do have
other items on my wish list, like Dahmer-skin shoes and a matching belt. i q
could use a Billy Young skin money pouch to get my quarters to the bank.t
Let's see, what other alligator hunters would look dandy dried and stretched
and sewn into some useful purpose, boxed and bowed and left waiting
beneath the Christmas Tree I'm sure Doc Get-it-on will bring to me before
the big day? Well, you get the idea.
And l did want to tell all my good friends on main street who were
double-crossed by the politicians and the bureaucrats and the cheerleaders,
not to fret or feel bitter. It would give those aforementioned knaves way to
much pleasure. Hang in there and prosper in 1986 Hardy, Paulette. Betty
Jo and L.J., Zach, Soon and kids, Kelly and William, Judge Ernie Drake
and his super wife Linda, Aunt Jean the Queen of Fine Vittles. Ace Donnie
and Ace Joey, Melvin Allen, Patty Hubert, Joe the king of Teens n'i
Queens, the quiet guys from the phone company office, and the best
sources any gator could ever ask for down at the barber shop, my finance
company buddies who always eye my pond full of quarters, and those nice.
ladies who I know would never sell an alligator pair of shoes, Jackie and Patl
at the Country Cobbler.
Merry Christmas wild and crazy crew at Aw Shucks, always-merry Bobby,
Vitter and his sweet Christmas Carol. Brenda's donuttiest gang, the,
chairman and chairwoman at Staffords, all the knuckle-busters at Himels.,
straight arrow Mike Sanders, the swell ladies of Jacksons and the supell
gentlemen they work with. I
I knew I wouldn't have started this because Pinchpenny is already trying
to tug-of-war this out of my hands and I haven't blown a gator kiss to Oresta
Pevey or to any of the cafe girls who light up my commuters' lives, or had
the time to pat clawed paw to the back of bachelor businessman Randy
Henagan, or tip my topper to the Gentleman of Main Street Charles Brancl"
and his quirky sist Charlene, or even time to whistle in appreciation of the
law ladies at ram Waterman s stain glass legal nest, or gwe the sly wink t(
Marie Wright down at Lawyer Troyer's, where Neal Terrebonne shares the4
digs. Merry Christmas Dippy Johnson. Mitrry Christmas Samba and Bonnie
Sue, and all the lads and ladies in blue down at the Post Office, not te4
mention the lovely lasses who work in the weirdest of places, the Berry
topped Bunker.
Happy New Year Pharmacist Bob Miano and you too in the eagle's nes:
with the picture window down at Minyards. If Pinchpenny rips this away
before ! can say you-deserve-the-best to Penny and Rod at Whitey's or to al'
the Larrieus of downtown Ponchatoula, to the lollipop ladies o R
Ponchatoula Homestead, Guaranty Bank, and Annette s unique crew over
at Central Progressive, I don t know what I'll do, but here he goes winninc
the final tug and so ! must splash backward into my giant champagne glad,
of tasty pond water with just one big, from the gator s nice cold heart, tc ,
everyone of you: 1
MFRRV CHRI.TMAI |
m
THE PONCHATOULA TIMES, DECEMBER 26, 1985, PAGE FIFTEEN
Teddy Bear Christmas in Ponchatoula
Dufreche home
• Ponchatoula Auction
FROM PAGE ONE
retailers, said Cowen. Under terms of
the sale the mailing list goes with the
building, the company and property.
Other parts of the agreement call for
Cowen to stay on at the Ponchatoula
Auction Company in an active capacity
for three months, and three months
more as an advisor to the new owners.
'l will then turn my back on the antique
and the auction business, as part of the
agreement," said Cowen, who added.
"Antiques can become a big part of you.
There is the historical angle, the
question of what king might have sat on
that particular chair has a lot to do with
it. I'm sure rl] be at the auctions because
I've grown to love antiques," he said.
For Stanley Cowen, who hints in a
half-kidding way that his next business
may be a travel agency, this change of
careers is.only the most recent in a life
full of widely differing jobs.
A Ponchatoula High School graduate
who attended SLU, Cowen was raised
the son of a downtown grocer who
started his working life in his father's
store.
On his own he directed and managed
a very popular jazz band which featured
himself on trumpet, after college he
opened a collection agency, went into
partnership with Buddy Dufreche in a
service station, ran a used car lot, sold
mobile homes, worked until his recent
retirement at the Ponchatoula Post
Office delivering a rural route on the
east side of town, became a concert
master and began the famous Hayride
concerts, where he met his wife Linda,
the mother of his two boys. Ley and
Ashley. He was a Country music agent,
brokering name bands all over the
South, dabbled in the restaurant
business and thrived in the antique
auction business. Four years ago he
started the state's first official Antique
Festival, and he retains all rights to that
event under his agreement with the new
auction owners.
But such a resume would not begin to
sum up Stanley Cowen, the man.
How to describe a youthful veteran of
World War II whose steady hand at the
tillar was all that kept him from death as
he went out day-after-day to cut loose
live Japanese sea mines in a 16 foot
boat in tossing seas, as part of his duties
aboard a minesweeper in the South
Pacific? This is the same fellow who
bought and restored the city's first fire
truck, but prefers to drive his renovated
World War I1 amphibious troop carrier
in local parades. He is the man most hit-
up for tables, chairs, halls for good
causes, and he even wrote into the sales
agreement that the upcoming
Strawberry Ball and P.H.S. prom
would continue to be held in the antique
building.
He would never brag or boast about
himself and will even be embarrassed by
these understated }ines.
Instead, he laughs off both praise and
the shock of friends who have just
learned he has decided to chart yet
another completely different course in
life:
"'We're going to all go someday, l'd
rather have a heart attack pulling up my
anchor than lifting one of those
armoires (one of the huge pieces of
antique furniture he and his ]0 employees
are regularly called upon to hoist shoulder-
high while the auctioneer pushed for the
highest bid)."
He adds, "Maybe the next business
will be a travel agency. This will of
course necessitate me going to inspect
certain locations. St. Thomas in the
Virgin Islands specifically."
Asked seriously if he is planning to
move his family to their vacation retreat
in the Caribbean, Cowen replied, "l'm
going to be in Ponchatoula from now
on. You don't turn your back on a place
like this."
St. Joseph 8th Grade
First Place - Methodist Church
May your road be smooth
and your fortunes wide,
And those you love be at your side.
In the holiday's finest tradition
we extend warm wishes and sincere
thanks for your continuing faith and trusL
6
Tucker s Full.Service
Open Christmas Day