A Place in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
A Place in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
Blog Article
There is a position in Florida that developed a 12-foot-superior monument in the middle of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody wish to do that?
Well, to begin with, heroes are challenging to discover on this invest Florida - the Panhandle metropolis of Wausau, dwelling of less than 500 folks for the duration of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero to convey the minimum? No person else places the possum that has a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Secondly, last 1982, Wausau got sick and Uninterested in currently being overlooked While using the Florida lists of entertaining, fairs and festivals. Every dedicate Florida demands a festival. Rather than one particular put set up Florida carries a Possum Festival. Why don't you Wausau?
If you have not long gone to Washington County, you most likely will Imagine I'm making this up. When you have long gone to Washington County, you will have an understanding of - and know this can be a real story.
Wausau, it proved, experienced some fairly strong possum politicians inside the early '80s. Here's two items they completed:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the 1st Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led on the building during the monument along Condition Highway 77 in Wausau.
They even acquired The usa Congress to industry the possum. Congress joined the pleasurable by giving the funds for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might website have a location to carry its yearly Fun Working day and Possum Competition. Featuring a queen contest and possum auction, among the other things, the Competition attracts plenty of men and women annually, and they adore it.
Day trip for a lot of educating of Northerners listed here. The South's possum is the same lowly animal you contact opossum, (Why use seven letters when 6 will do?) It is a smallish marsupial that life in trees and displays its ugly entire body only in the evening. That is why, when you are within right place in Florida, you could hear possum hunters' dogs baying and barking. Treed by pet dogs, the possum 'freezes', so It'll be not complicated to capture (or shoot) 1.
An inscription to the monument in the middle of Wausau cites the possum's position in furnishing 'equally fur and foodstuff' through the entire hundreds of years. It goes on say: 'Their presence in this article has presented an origin of nutritious and flavorful food stuff in standard instances and possesses been a major help to human survival in situations of distress and significant want.'
Giggle in case you'd choose. The men and women of Wausau will chortle alongside - when downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.