A spot in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum
A spot in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There's a put in Florida that built a 12-foot-significant monument in the center of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anyone have to do that?
Nicely, to start with off, heroes are hard to search out on this spend Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, property of below 500 folks through Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an unlikely hero understandably? Nobody else puts the possum which has a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Next, past 1982, Wausau bought Sick and tired of being overlooked during the Florida lists of entertaining, fairs and festivals. Every set in place Florida needs a festival. Rather than a person devote Florida provides a Possum Pageant. Why not Wausau?
If you have not absent to Washington County, you probably will think I am generating this up. Should you have visited Washington County, you can fully grasp - and know this is the real Tale.
Wausau, it wound up, experienced some fairly highly effective possum politicians in early '80s. Listed below are some things they completed:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the First Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led for the creating in the monument alongside Point out Highway 77 in Wausau.
They even received The usa Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the exciting by offering the resources for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau may have a spot to carry its yearly Enjoyment Working day and Possum Pageant. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, among other issues, the Pageant attracts 1000s of persons each year, and In addition they like it.
Day out to get a couple of educating of Northerners in this article. The South's possum is the same lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use seven letters when six will probably do?) It's a smallish website marsupial that lives in trees and exhibits its hideous body only in the evening. This is why, When you are within suitable place in Florida, you can listen to possum hunters' puppies baying and barking. Treed by puppies, the possum 'freezes', for that reason it truly is not so challenging to hook (or shoot) a single.
An inscription for the monument in the midst of Wausau cites the possum's part in giving 'each fur and foods' through the generations. It goes on to say: 'Their presence right here has presented a source of nutritious and flavorful food in normal times and it has been a crucial help to human survival in periods of distress and significant want.'
Snicker if you prefer. The people of Wausau will giggle along with you - though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.