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 area in Florida that created a twelve-foot-large monument in the middle of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anyone desire to perform that?
Well, to begin, heroes are tough to obtain using this place in place Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, household of less than 500 persons in the heart of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an not likely hero understandably? No one else places the possum that has a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Secondly, past 1982, Wausau received Ill and tired of staying ignored With all the Florida lists of enjoyment, fairs and festivals. Each set in position Florida wishes a Pageant. And never 1 invest Florida includes a Possum Pageant. Why not Wausau?
If you have never absent to Washington County, you probably will Assume I am making this up. When you've got been to Washington County, you can understand - and know this is the correct story.
Wausau, it wound up, experienced some really impressive possum politicians within the early '80s. Listed below are a set of items they completed:
They get more info persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the quite 1st Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led to your constructing in the monument alongside Condition Freeway 77 in Wausau.
They even acquired the United States Congress to publicize the possum. Congress joined the exciting by the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau may have a spot to hold its annual Exciting Day and Possum Competition. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, between other matters, the Pageant attracts heaps of men and women on a yearly basis, and so that they find it irresistible.
Day trip for some educating of Northerners here. The South's possum is similar lowly animal you simply call opossum, (Why use 7 letters when 6 can do?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and exhibits its unappealing physique only at nighttime. This is exactly why, when you end up during the right devote Florida, you are able to listen to possum hunters' puppies baying and barking. Treed by dogs, the possum 'freezes', so it can be easy to hook (or shoot) one.
An inscription to the monument in the midst of Wausau cites the possum's part in giving 'both fur and meals' all through the centuries. It goes on to say: 'Their existence in this article has delivered a resource of nutritious and flavorful foods in typical occasions and it has been a vital aid to human survival during periods of distress and critical need to have.'
Laugh if you're keen on. The people of Wausau will chuckle along with you - while downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.