A location in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
A location in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
Blog Article
There's a dedicate Florida that built a twelve-foot-superior monument in the heart of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would everyone must do that?
Effectively, to get started with, heroes are difficult to find inside this set in position Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, property of less than 500 persons in the middle of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an unlikely hero to say the the very least? No person else places the possum by using a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, back again 1982, Wausau bought Unwell and Sick and tired of remaining disregarded with the Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Every area in Florida demands a festival. And not just one place in Florida features a Possum Competition. Why don't you Wausau?
If you have hardly ever absent to Washington County, you most likely will Assume I'm causeing this to generally be up. Should you have absent to Washington County, you may have an understanding of - and know this is the legitimate story.
Wausau, it wound up, had some really impressive possum politicians during the early '80s. Allow me to share a pair of factors they achieved:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the 1st Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led for the making through the monument alongside Condition Highway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even obtained The usa Congress in advertising and marketing the possum. Congress joined the enjoyment by giving the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could have a region to hold its yearly Fun Day and Possum Pageant. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, amid other things, the Pageant appeals to Lots of individuals yearly, and In addition they locate it irresistible.
Outing for some educating of Northerners listed here. The South's possum is identical lowly animal you simply call opossum, (Why use seven letters when six is going to do?) It is a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and shows its hideous physique only at night. This is why, For anyone who is inside the ideal commit Florida, you'll be able to hear possum hunters' canine baying and barking. Treed by dogs, the possum 'freezes', so it is quick capture (or shoot) a single.
An inscription concerning the click here monument through Wausau cites the possum's part in supplying 'each fur and foods' in the total hundreds of years. It goes on to say: 'Their presence here has delivered a supply of nutritious and flavorful foodstuff in regular periods and it has been a significant support to human survival through times of distress and important need.'
Chuckle If you need. The people of Wausau will chuckle along with you - when downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.