There's a put set up Florida that crafted a twelve-foot-superior monument in the course of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody may well love to do that?
Effectively, to begin with, heroes acquire time and effort to receive In this particular commit Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, property of lower than 500 folks in the midst of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an not likely hero To place it mildly? No one else places the possum with a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, in 1982, Wausau acquired sick and exhausted with becoming overlooked from the Florida lists of fun, fairs and festivals. Each individual spend Florida desires a Competition. And not a person spot in Florida includes a Possum Festival. Why not Wausau?
If you haven't attended Washington County, you most likely will think I'm producing this up. In case you have frequented Washington County, you can understand - and know this can be a accurate Tale.
Wausau, it wound up, had some rather highly effective possum politicians in the early '80s. Here are some things they completed:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the primary Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led to the setting up with the monument along Condition Freeway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even acquired America Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the enjoyable by offering the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might need a site to help keep its yearly Pleasurable Working day and Possum Pageant. That includes a queen contest and read more possum auction, amid other things, the Pageant attracts a lot of men and women every year, in addition they like it.
Trip for some educating of Northerners below. The South's possum is the same lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use seven letters when six will carry out?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and demonstrates its ugly entire body only during the night time. That's why, after you end up In the ideal commit Florida, you could listen to possum hunters' canine baying and barking. Treed by puppies, the possum 'freezes', so It can be straightforward seize (or shoot) a single.
An inscription around the monument in the middle of Wausau cites the possum's role in giving 'each fur and food items' with the overall hundreds of years. It goes on to say: 'Their existence in this article has supplied an origin of nutritious and flavorful food items in normal occasions and it has been a significant enable to human survival in times of distress and critical require.'
Laugh if you love. The people today of Wausau will chortle along with you - even though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.