A location in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
A location in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There is a position in Florida that constructed a 12-foot-large monument in the midst of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any individual may well like to do that?
Very well, very first off, heroes are tough to find on this spend Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, residence of below five hundred folks in the midst of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero as you would hope? No person else puts the possum on the pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Next, in 1982, Wausau acquired Ill and Sick and tired of being neglected Together with the Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Each individual devote Florida demands a Pageant. And not 1 position in Florida has a Possum Festival. Why don't you Wausau?
If you have never gone to Washington County, you almost certainly will Assume I'm creating this up. When you've got frequented Washington County, you may recognize - and know this can be a correct story.
Wausau, it proved, had some rather potent possum politicians during the early '80s. Here's a number of points they achieved:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the pretty first Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led to the constructing inside the monument alongside Point out Highway 77 in Wausau.
They even bought The usa Congress to marketplace the possum. Congress joined the entertaining by supplying the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau would have a spot to assist its once-a-year Enjoyable Day and Possum Festival. That includes a queen contest and possum auction, between other things, the festival appeals to loads of folks Just about every and annually, additionally they locate it irresistible.
Time out for a few educating of Northerners below. The South's possum is comparable lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use seven letters when 6 will accomplish?) It is a smallish marsupial check here that lives in trees and exhibits its hideous body only during the night. That is why, when you are Within the correct spend Florida, you could listen to possum hunters' puppies baying and barking. Treed by canines, the possum 'freezes', so It truly is very simple ample to entice (or shoot) 1.
An inscription regarding the monument in the guts of Wausau cites the possum's function in giving 'both fur and foods' through the generations. It goes on to say: 'Their presence right here has presented a source of nutritious and flavorful food in regular instances and has been a vital aid to human survival in occasions of distress and significant require.'
Snicker in case you'd like. The folks of Wausau will chuckle along with you - even though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.