A Place in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum
A Place in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There's a devote Florida that built a twelve-foot-large monument all through town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody would like to perform that?
Nicely, to begin with, heroes are really hard to receive in this position in Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, property of fewer than 500 folks in the midst of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero understandably? Nobody else puts the possum more than a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Next, back in 1982, Wausau received Ill and Weary of getting left out of the Florida lists of entertaining, fairs and festivals. Each commit Florida requirements a Pageant. Rather than just one devote Florida encompasses a Possum Pageant. Why not Wausau?
If you've in no way frequented Washington County, you probably will think I am So, producing this up. For those who have been to Washington County, you will comprehend - and know it is a legitimate story.
Wausau, it proved, had some really highly effective possum politicians from the early '80s. Allow me to share two items they completed:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the main Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led into the building with the monument along Point out Freeway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even got The us Congress to sector the possum. Congress joined the entertaining by way of offering the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could possibly have a location to hold its annual Pleasurable Working day and Possum Competition. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, among other factors, the Pageant draws in plenty of people each year, in addition they like it.
Trip for many educating of Northerners listed here. The South's possum is the same lowly animal you simply call opossum, (Why use seven letters when six can do?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and exhibits its unattractive physique only during the night time. That's why, when you're throughout the suitable make investments Florida, you are able to listen to possum hunters' canine baying and here barking. Treed by dogs, the possum 'freezes', hence it is actually straightforward to lure (or shoot) one particular.
An inscription about the monument in the middle of Wausau cites the possum's function in furnishing 'both of those fur and food stuff' through the entire centuries. It goes on to say: 'Their existence listed here has furnished an origin of nutritious and flavorful food stuff in standard instances and it has been a big assist to human survival when in distress and demanding will need.'
Chortle if you love. The people of Wausau will laugh along with you - whilst downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.