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 devote Florida that developed a twelve-foot-superior monument in the center of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any person would like to do that?
Properly, to get started with, heroes are hard to come by Within this location in Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, house of fewer than five hundred persons in the heart of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero understandably? No person else places the possum above a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Secondly, back again 1982, Wausau got Ill and fatigued with currently being overlooked in the Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Just about every devote Florida demands a Competition. And never one particular area in Florida encompasses a Possum Pageant. Why don't you Wausau?
If you haven't absent to Washington County, you almost certainly will Consider I am developing this up. In case you have long gone to Washington County, you are going to have an understanding of - and know this can be a accurate story.
Wausau, it turned out, experienced some pretty potent possum politicians noisy . '80s. Listed below are a handful of points they completed:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the main Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led to your constructing within the monument together State Highway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even got The usa Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the exciting by offering the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have a spot to guidance its once-a-year Enjoyment Working day and Possum Pageant. That includes a queen contest and possum auction, among the other things, the Competition appeals to many people Every and each year, and they adore it.
Trip for many educating of Northerners listed here. The South's possum is identical lowly animal you get in touch with opossum, (Why use seven letters when six will carry out?) It's a smallish marsupial check here that lives in trees and shows its unpleasant overall body only at night. That's why, when you end up within the suitable place in Florida, you may hear possum hunters' pet dogs baying and barking. Treed by puppies, the possum 'freezes', so it is not challenging to hook (or shoot) a single.
An inscription for the monument in the guts of Wausau cites the possum's purpose in offering 'both equally fur and foodstuff' through the entire centuries. It goes on to say: 'Their existence right here has presented an origin of nutritious and flavorful food in regular times and possesses been an important aid to human survival in occasions of distress and demanding require.'
Snicker If you prefer. The persons of Wausau will chuckle as well as you - while downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.