There's a dedicate Florida that created a twelve-foot-higher monument in the course of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody choose to do that?
Nicely, to start with, heroes are tough to get on this set in position Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, home of under five hundred persons in the heart of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an not likely hero to mention the the very least? No one else places the possum on a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Next, final 1982, Wausau obtained Unwell and tired with currently being ignored inside the Florida lists of exciting, fairs and festivals. Each individual spend Florida demands a Pageant. And never a single spot in Florida incorporates a Possum Pageant. Why don't you Wausau?
If you have never long gone to Washington County, you most likely will think I'm causeing this to generally be up. When you've got been to Washington County, you can expect to recognize - and know This can be the legitimate Tale.
Wausau, it ended up, experienced some fairly strong possum politicians in the early '80s. Here are some things they completed:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the pretty initial Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led towards the developing from the monument together State Highway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even got The usa Congress to marketplace the website possum. Congress joined the enjoyment by giving the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could have a location to hold its annual Exciting Day and Possum Festival. That includes a queen contest and possum auction, amongst other factors, the Pageant attracts Countless people on a yearly basis, plus they like it.
Day out for plenty of educating of Northerners in this article. The South's possum is the same lowly animal you contact opossum, (Why use seven letters when six can perform?) It is a smallish marsupial that life in trees and shows its unpleasant overall body only at night. That's why, when you end up during the right place in Florida, you can listen to possum hunters' canines baying and barking. Treed by dogs, the possum 'freezes', consequently it is actually effortless to hook (or shoot) just one.
An inscription about the monument in the course of Wausau cites the possum's purpose in supplying 'equally fur and food stuff' throughout the centuries. It goes on to say: 'Their presence listed here has furnished a resource of nutritious and flavorful meals in regular occasions and it has been an essential support to human survival in occasions of distress and critical have to have.'
Chuckle if you want. The folks of Wausau will laugh with you - when downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.