She is known as FESTOON FOX in these Waukesha parts. She once was named in a contest in the late 1960s during the DDD incarnation. She stood as proudly as she could in her stuffed state, in a small shop window on Grand Ave in the downtown, not far from the mighty Fox River which flows pleasantly through our mutual environs.
She has been restored, in a manner of speaking, and has returned to downtown Waukesha at last, just now in April 2010. She is risen from yearas in a disregarded dusty basement to a rarified high loft ledge. Friend Mel Stark, not a taxidermist by trade but multi-talented, reattached Festoon's right ear and brushed her out, bringing back her reddish luster.
Customers in Dave's Restaurant front booth across the Five Points intersection can look up and see, when the lights are on up here, a smiling (albeit fixed) Festoon holding forth, looking out over her beloved Waukesha, high on the top floor of the historic Putney building. Appropriately, we are in a restored and subdivided hall where the local chapter of the Odd Fellows once held their meetings.
There is something poetic about Festoon's return to the downtown. Look up and see her from Dave's as you dine on their reasonably-priced and happy fare. Festoon's presence is not glaring. She is just there, in the background.
Festoon is this time clamped down so she won't fall from her high perch. She relates well to the sewer raccoons, BTW.
