A spot in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
A spot in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There's a position in Florida that developed a twelve-foot-large monument in the midst of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any individual really need to do that?
Very well, to start with off, heroes are really hard to come back by in this put in Florida - the Panhandle funds of scotland - Wausau, residence of much less than five hundred persons in the middle of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero as you would hope? No person else places the possum on the pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Secondly, back in 1982, Wausau acquired Uninterested in staying overlooked during the Florida lists of entertaining, fairs and festivals. Each and every place in position Florida needs a Pageant. Instead of a single spot in Florida carries a Possum Competition. Why not Wausau?
If you haven't frequented Washington County, you almost certainly will Believe I'm generating this up. Should you have long gone to Washington County, you will understand - and know This may be a real Tale.
Wausau, it proved, experienced some quite powerful possum politicians throughout the early '80s. Allow me to share two things they completed:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the 1st Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led to your making in the monument alongside State Highway 77 in Wausau.
They even got the United States Congress in selling the possum. Congress joined the pleasurable by offering the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have a place to hold its once-a-year Exciting Day and Possum Competition. Featuring a queen contest and possum auction, amid other points, the Pageant attracts Countless people each year, and In addition they like it.
Day trip for just a few educating of Northerners below. The South's possum is the similar lowly animal you connect with opossum, (Why use 7 letters when 6 will do?) It's a smallish marsupial that life in trees and shows its hideous system only at nighttime. That is why, if you are Within the right put in position Florida, you may hear possum hunters' pet dogs baying and barking. Treed by canine, the possum 'freezes', so It truly is not tricky to lure (or shoot) 1.
An inscription across the monument in the center of Wausau cites the possum's job in supplying 'the two fur and food items' more info with the complete hundreds of years. It goes to say: 'Their existence below has furnished a resource of nutritious and flavorful food in normal situations and it's got been An important support to human survival in times of distress and significant require.'
Chortle if you want. The people of Wausau will chuckle with you - while downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.