A location in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
A location in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There is a spend Florida that constructed a twelve-foot-high monument in the course of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would everyone must do that?
Very well, to start with, heroes are hard to get With this put set up Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, home of underneath five hundred persons in the guts of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero understandably? No person else places the possum in excess of a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Secondly, back in 1982, Wausau obtained Ill and drained with getting neglected With all the Florida lists of entertaining, fairs and festivals. Just about every put set up Florida desires a Pageant. Rather than 1 set set up Florida features a Possum Pageant. Why not Wausau?
If you have never been to Washington County, you most likely will think I am Therefore, creating this up. If you have attended Washington County, you will realize - and know it is a accurate Tale.
Wausau, it proved, had some really highly effective possum politicians in the early '80s. Listed below are a pair of points they attained:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the really to start with Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led to your constructing of your monument alongside Condition Highway 77 in Wausau.
They even acquired America Congress to marketplace the possum. website Congress joined the enjoyment by giving the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have an area to carry its yearly Enjoyment Working day and Possum Pageant. That includes a queen contest and possum auction, among the other things, the festival attracts heaps of folks on a yearly basis, moreover they adore it.
Time out for any few educating of Northerners listed here. The South's possum is similar lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use seven letters when 6 can do?) It's a smallish marsupial that life in trees and exhibits its ugly body only in the evening. That's why, when you are within suitable location in Florida, you'll be able to listen to possum hunters' pet dogs baying and barking. Treed by pet dogs, the possum 'freezes', so it will be uncomplicated sufficient to trap (or shoot) a person.
An inscription within the monument throughout Wausau cites the possum's role in delivering 'both fur and foodstuff' from the complete hundreds of years. It goes on say: 'Their presence below has supplied an origin of nutritious and flavorful meals in typical instances and it has been a very important assist to human survival during moments of distress and critical need to have.'
Snicker if you like. The men and women of Wausau will laugh together - though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.