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 put in Florida that crafted a 12-foot-higher monument in the middle of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any person should do that?
Well, to begin with, heroes are tricky to come back by in this put in Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, household of fewer than 500 folks in the midst of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an not likely hero to put it mildly? No person else places the possum more than a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Next, final 1982, Wausau obtained Fed up with getting disregarded With all the Florida lists of enjoyment, fairs and festivals. Each and every set set up Florida needs a festival. Rather than just one place in place Florida carries a Possum Competition. Why not Wausau?
If you haven't absent to Washington County, you almost certainly will Assume I am building this up. For those who have long gone to Washington County, you are going to have an understanding of - and know This is a true Tale.
Wausau, it wound up, experienced some fairly strong possum politicians in early '80s. Here's a couple of things they achieved:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the quite 1st Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led on the creating in the monument along Condition Highway 77 in Wausau.
They even bought The us Congress in advertising and marketing the possum. Congress joined the exciting by offering the funds for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have a place to hold its once-a-year Entertaining Day and Possum Competition. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, amid other issues, the festival draws in lots of folks Each and every and every year, and they also find it irresistible.
Time out for many educating of Northerners in this article. The South's possum is identical lowly animal you connect with opossum, (Why use seven letters when six will do?) It is a smallish marsupial that life in trees and shows its unattractive human body only at nighttime. That's why, when you are within ideal spend Florida, you may listen to possum hunters' pet dogs baying and barking. Treed by dogs, the possum 'freezes', so it's not so complicated capture (or shoot) a person.
An inscription around the monument through Wausau cites the possum's job in giving 'the two fur and food items' with the total centuries. It goes to say: 'Their existence here has offered an origin of nutritious and flavorful meals in ordinary occasions and has been a significant read more aid to human survival considerably more distress and demanding need.'
Chortle if you prefer. The folks of Wausau will chortle along with you - although downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.