There's a spend Florida that crafted a 12-foot-high monument in the middle of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anyone desire to do that?
Perfectly, very first off, heroes get effort and time to research in this put in Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, house of much less than 500 persons in the center of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero to state the least? No one else places the possum using a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Next, past 1982, Wausau acquired Bored with becoming left out with the Florida lists of fun, fairs and festivals. Every single commit Florida demands a Competition. And not one area in Florida features a Possum Pageant. Why don't you Wausau?
If you have never ever been to Washington County, you almost certainly will Assume I am producing this up. Should you have been to Washington County, you can fully grasp - and know It's a real story.
Wausau, it turned out, experienced some really effective possum politicians from the early '80s. Listed here are two items they attained:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the first Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led to the building While using the monument along Point out Highway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even got the United States Congress in endorsing the possum. Congress joined the entertaining by the money for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have a site to support its once-a-year Pleasurable Day and Possum Festival. Showcasing a queen more info contest and possum auction, amongst other factors, the festival appeals to a lot of men and women on a yearly basis, and Additionally they like it.
Day out for just a couple educating of Northerners in this article. The South's possum is identical lowly animal you contact opossum, (Why use 7 letters when 6 will almost certainly do?) It's a smallish marsupial that life in trees and displays its unpleasant body only at night. This is exactly why, when you end up inside of correct devote Florida, you are able to listen to possum hunters' canines baying and barking. Treed by canines, the possum 'freezes', as a result it's not so challenging to hook (or shoot) 1.
An inscription on the monument in the center of Wausau cites the possum's function in delivering 'both fur and foods' in the total hundreds of years. It goes on to say: 'Their existence listed here has offered a source of nutritious and flavorful food stuff in ordinary situations and has been an essential support to human survival when in distress and demanding need.'
Giggle If you would like. The folks of Wausau will chuckle along with you - though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.