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's a devote Florida that constructed a twelve-foot-substantial monument in the course of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any person choose to do that?
Well, to begin with, heroes are hard to uncover within just this invest Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, home of fewer than five hundred people in the center of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero to put it mildly? Nobody else places the possum in excess of a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, back again 1982, Wausau obtained Unwell and Uninterested in staying neglected inside the Florida lists of entertaining, fairs and festivals. Each individual devote Florida demands a festival. And not one particular place in Florida features a Possum Pageant. Why not Wausau?
If you have not long gone to Washington County, you almost certainly will Imagine I am creating this up. When you've got frequented Washington County, you can expect to have an understanding of - and know It's a true story.
Wausau, it proved, had some pretty impressive possum politicians in early '80s. Here's two issues they accomplished:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the Preliminary Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led to your developing of the monument along State Freeway 77 in Wausau.
They even got the United States Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the enjoyment by delivering the resources for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have a location to hold its once-a-year Fun Working day and Possum Pageant. That includes a queen contest and possum auction, between other matters, the Competition draws in Many people on a yearly basis, and Additionally they adore it.
Trip for some educating of Northerners here. The South's possum would be the equivalent lowly animal you get in touch with opossum, (Why use seven letters when six will do?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and displays its unappealing physique only at nighttime. This is why, if you're inside proper set in place Florida, you can listen to possum hunters' puppies baying and barking. Treed by canines, the possum 'freezes', so It is effortless to catch (or shoot) one.
An inscription for the monument in the guts of Wausau cites the possum's job in furnishing 'both fur and food' throughout the total centuries. It goes on to say: 'Their presence click here here has presented a source of nutritious and flavorful foods in usual occasions and has been A vital support to human survival for the duration of moments of distress and demanding need.'
Laugh if you're keen on. The individuals of Wausau will chortle as well as you - though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.