A Place in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum
A Place in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There's a commit Florida that built a twelve-foot-higher monument in the midst of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody must do that?
Effectively, to start out, heroes are hard to locate On this devote Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, house of lower than five hundred individuals in the heart of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an not likely hero as you would be expecting? No person else puts the possum with a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, back in 1982, Wausau got Ill and Bored with remaining overlooked of the Florida lists of enjoyment, fairs and festivals. Each commit Florida needs a Pageant. And never one commit Florida includes a Possum Festival. Why not Wausau?
If you haven't frequented Washington County, you probably will Assume I am generating this up. In case you have attended Washington County, you are going to comprehend - and know This can be the accurate story.
Wausau, it proved, experienced some very highly effective possum politicians noisy . '80s. Here's two matters they achieved:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the initial Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led to your building on the monument along Condition Highway 77 in Wausau.
They even got The usa Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the enjoyment as a result of supplying the resources for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could have a place to keep its annual Exciting Working day and Possum Pageant. That includes a queen contest and possum auction, among the other issues, the Pageant draws in A lot of people annually, and so they adore it.
Time out for some educating of Northerners right here. The South's possum is equivalent lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use 7 letters when 6 will do?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and shows its unsightly entire body only in the evening. This is exactly why, when you are inside of appropriate commit Florida, you could hear possum hunters' canines baying and barking. Treed by pet dogs, the possum 'freezes', so It will probably be basic enough to hook (or shoot) just one.
An website inscription on the monument in the center of Wausau cites the possum's purpose in furnishing 'both of those fur and food items' in the course of the total generations. It goes onto say: 'Their presence listed here has offered a source of nutritious and flavorful food in usual times and possesses been an essential support to human survival when in distress and critical want.'
Giggle If you need. The folks of Wausau will chuckle together with you - even though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.