A Place in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
A Place in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There's a commit Florida that built a 12-foot-higher monument in the middle of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any individual could love to do that?
Perfectly, to start with, heroes are tough to come by in this area in Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, property of lower than 500 people in the midst of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an unlikely hero to say the the very least? Nobody else places the possum having a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Secondly, again 1982, Wausau bought sick and Fed up with staying disregarded with the Florida lists of enjoyable, fairs and festivals. Each and every put in Florida requires a Pageant. Instead of one place set up Florida features a Possum Pageant. Why don't you Wausau?
If you haven't been to Washington County, you almost certainly will Believe I'm earning this up. When you've got visited Washington County, you can expect to comprehend - and know This is actually the genuine Tale.
Wausau, it turned out, experienced some fairly highly effective possum politicians noisy . '80s. Listed below are a number of points they accomplished:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the 1st Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led on the making during the monument along Point out Highway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even received America Congress to marketplace the possum. Congress joined the fun by the resources for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau may have an area to hold its yearly Enjoyment Day and Possum Festival. read more That includes a queen contest and possum auction, between other things, the Pageant appeals to A huge number of persons Each individual and annually, moreover they adore it.
Time out for a great deal of educating of Northerners right here. The South's possum is similar lowly animal you phone opossum, (Why use seven letters when six will almost certainly do?) It is a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and shows its hideous body only during the night time. That is why, Should you be inside the correct area in Florida, you are able to listen to possum hunters' canine baying and barking. Treed by dogs, the possum 'freezes', so it's not challenging to hook (or shoot) a person.
An inscription to the monument in the midst of Wausau cites the possum's purpose in providing 'each fur and meals' in the centuries. It goes onto say: 'Their presence here has provided a supply of nutritious and flavorful food in standard times and has been a crucial aid to human survival in occasions of distress and critical need to have.'
Chuckle if you like. The men and women of Wausau will giggle along with you - when downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.