A location in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum
A location in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There is a spend Florida that built a 12-foot-high monument in the course of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody have to do that?
Very well, to begin, heroes take effort and time to uncover on this put in position Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, household of less than 500 folks during Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero to convey the least? No person else places the possum over the pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Next, in 1982, Wausau obtained Ill and Bored with getting ignored through the Florida lists of enjoyment, fairs and festivals. Every put in Florida needs a festival. Instead of just one area in Florida carries a Possum Festival. Why don't you Wausau?
If you haven't attended Washington County, you almost certainly will Consider I am developing this up. When you've got been to Washington County, you'll recognize - and know It's a genuine Tale.
Wausau, it turned out, had some very powerful possum politicians in the course of the early '80s. Here i will discuss a number of items they achieved:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the 1st Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led on the constructing Using the monument along Condition Freeway 77 in Wausau.
They even got The usa Congress in advertising and marketing the possum. Congress joined the entertaining by providing the cash for click here Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau may have a location to carry its yearly Entertaining Working day and Possum Festival. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, amid other items, the Pageant appeals to Lots of people every year, and Additionally they adore it.
Day trip for a lot of educating of Northerners here. The South's possum is similar lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use 7 letters when 6 will do?) It is a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and displays its hideous entire body only in the evening. This is why, if you're Within the correct position in Florida, you'll be able to listen to possum hunters' pet dogs baying and barking. Treed by canine, the possum 'freezes', therefore it is not tough seize (or shoot) one particular.
An inscription round the monument during Wausau cites the possum's role in supplying 'equally fur and food stuff' over the total centuries. It goes on to say: 'Their existence right here has presented a supply of nutritious and flavorful food items in ordinary situations and it has been an important assistance to human survival through occasions of distress and important need to have.'
Chortle if you like. The people today of Wausau will laugh with you - when downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.