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 crafted a 12-foot-substantial monument in the midst of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any person wish to accomplish that?
Well, to begin with, heroes consider effort and time to return by in this devote Florida - the Panhandle capital of scotland - Wausau, home of below five hundred persons in the center of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an unlikely hero to put it mildly? No one else places the possum in excess of a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, back 1982, Wausau obtained Ill and Bored with staying left out Using the Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Each individual spend Florida demands a festival. Instead of a single commit Florida provides a Possum Pageant. Why not Wausau?
If you haven't attended Washington County, you probably will Assume I am generating this up. When you have visited Washington County, you can expect to comprehend - and know it is a accurate story.
Wausau, it proved, had some fairly powerful possum politicians throughout the early '80s. Here's two things they accomplished:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the 1st Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led towards the creating Along with the monument along Point out Highway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even received America Congress to advertise the possum. Congress joined the exciting by delivering the funds for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could have an area to keep its yearly Pleasurable Working day and Possum Competition. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, between other things, the Competition appeals to many people yearly, and Additionally they love it.
Day trip for many educating of Northerners here. The South's possum is definitely the identical lowly animal you connect with opossum, (Why use 7 letters when six will do?) It's a click here smallish marsupial that lives in trees and shows its hideous system only during the night. This is exactly why, When you are inside of suitable put in Florida, you may hear possum hunters' dogs baying and barking. Treed by pet dogs, the possum 'freezes', therefore it is actually basic ample capture (or shoot) one.
An inscription for that monument in the middle of Wausau cites the possum's role in offering 'both equally fur and food' from the hundreds of years. It goes onto say: 'Their existence in this article has provided a resource of nutritious and flavorful foodstuff in standard moments and has been An important help to human survival in situations of distress and important want.'
Snicker if you like. The people today of Wausau will chuckle with you - while downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.