A spot in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
A spot in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There is a place set up Florida that developed a twelve-foot-high monument for the duration of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody have to do that?
Properly, to begin with, heroes are hard to exploration During this commit Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, home of beneath 500 folks in the course of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero understandably? Nobody else places the possum on a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Secondly, in 1982, Wausau bought fed up with being disregarded with the Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Each devote Florida needs a Competition. And not a single dedicate Florida contains a Possum Pageant. Why not Wausau?
If you've in no way been to Washington County, you most likely will Assume I'm producing this up. Should you have been to Washington County, you can expect to comprehend - and know this is the correct story.
Wausau, it turned out, experienced some rather potent possum politicians in early '80s. Here are a couple of things they accomplished:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the primary Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led into the building With all the monument together Point out Highway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even obtained the United States Congress to advertise the possum. Congress here joined the fun by the resources for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau would have a place to hold its annual Enjoyable Day and Possum Pageant. That includes a queen contest and possum auction, between other issues, the Competition appeals to loads of folks each and every year, and so that they adore it.
Outing for the handful of educating of Northerners right here. The South's possum is definitely the similar lowly animal you connect with opossum, (Why use seven letters when 6 will do?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and shows its unattractive system only in the evening. This is why, if you find yourself throughout the proper dedicate Florida, you'll be able to hear possum hunters' canines baying and barking. Treed by canines, the possum 'freezes', hence it can be not so challenging seize (or shoot) a single.
An inscription about the monument in the center of Wausau cites the possum's purpose in offering 'equally fur and food' from the hundreds of years. It goes onto say: 'Their presence here has offered a resource of nutritious and flavorful meals in regular moments and it's got been A necessary assist to human survival when in distress and critical have to have.'
Snicker should you'd desire. The men and women of Wausau will chuckle along with you - although downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.