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 is a devote Florida that built a 12-foot-high monument all through city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody must do that?
Properly, to get started with, heroes consider time and effort to return by within this invest Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, property of below five hundred persons in the midst of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero to put it mildly? No one else puts the possum which has a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, final 1982, Wausau received tired of remaining overlooked in the Florida lists of fun, fairs and festivals. Each dedicate Florida needs a Pageant. Rather than one particular dedicate Florida carries a Possum Competition. Why not Wausau?
If you have not attended Washington County, you almost certainly will Believe I am producing this up. In case you have frequented Washington County, you can fully grasp - and know this can be a real story.
Wausau, it turned out, had some pretty impressive possum politicians noisy . '80s. Listed below are a few items they completed:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the pretty initially Saturday in August website as Possum Day in Florida. That led on the building within the monument alongside State Highway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even bought The usa Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the pleasurable by offering the money for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could have an area to keep its once-a-year Fun Working day and Possum Festival. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, between other items, the Pageant attracts A lot of people annually, moreover they adore it.
Trip for a lot of educating of Northerners here. The South's possum is identical lowly animal you get in touch with opossum, (Why use seven letters when 6 is going to do?) It's a smallish marsupial that life in trees and displays its hideous body only during the night. This is why, while you are within the proper dedicate Florida, you are able to hear possum hunters' puppies baying and barking. Treed by canine, the possum 'freezes', so it is actually not so challenging to trap (or shoot) a person.
An inscription for the monument in the center of Wausau cites the possum's position in offering 'each fur and food stuff' through the full generations. It goes on to say: 'Their existence below has delivered an origin of nutritious and flavorful food in typical periods and has been a big support to human survival when in distress and significant need to have.'
Laugh in the event you'd want. The people today of Wausau will chuckle together - although downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.