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 constructed a 12-foot-superior monument in the middle of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any individual should do that?
Well, to get started with, heroes consider time and effort to obtain within this put in Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, home of less than 500 individuals all through Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero to put it mildly? Nobody else places the possum on a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Next, past 1982, Wausau bought Ill and Uninterested in staying ignored in the Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Each and every area in Florida requires a festival. Rather than a single place in Florida carries a Possum Competition. Why not Wausau?
If you have not attended Washington County, you probably will think I am building this up. For those who have been to Washington County, you may understand - and know It's really a genuine story.
Wausau, it turned out, experienced some quite strong possum politicians over the early '80s. Here i will discuss two points they attained:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the Original Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led to your creating inside the monument along State Freeway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even got the United States Congress to advertise the possum. Congress joined the entertaining by the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could have a spot to aid its yearly Fun Day and Possum Competition. Featuring a queen contest and possum auction, amid other things, the Pageant appeals to Countless men and women on a yearly basis, and they also love it.
Day trip For lots of educating of Northerners right here. The South's possum is comparable lowly here animal you simply call opossum, (Why use seven letters when 6 will conduct?) It is a smallish marsupial that life in trees and displays its unattractive physique only in the evening. That's why, when you are in the proper commit Florida, you can hear possum hunters' dogs baying and barking. Treed by canines, the possum 'freezes', so it is actually simple to hook (or shoot) 1.
An inscription within the monument in the middle of Wausau cites the possum's job in giving 'equally fur and foods' from the centuries. It goes onto say: 'Their presence right here has presented a resource of nutritious and flavorful meals in typical periods and it has been an essential assist to human survival when in distress and critical want.'
Chuckle If you would like. The people today of Wausau will chuckle in addition to you - when downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.