A location in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
A location in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There's a put set up Florida that developed a twelve-foot-high monument in the heart of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any individual would like to perform that?
Nicely, to start out, heroes are hard to have with this put set up Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, house of below 500 folks in the heart of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero to mention the minimum? Nobody else places the possum on the pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, previous 1982, Wausau acquired Ill and exhausted with getting omitted Along with the Florida lists of enjoyable, fairs and festivals. Just about every commit Florida wants a Competition. And not just one position in Florida carries a Possum Pageant. Why not Wausau?
If you haven't been to Washington County, you most likely will Consider I'm generating this up. Should you have gone to Washington County, you can expect to fully grasp - and know This may be a real Tale.
Wausau, it proved, experienced some fairly highly effective possum politicians in early '80s. Listed here are two matters they achieved:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the initial Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led into the developing of your monument along State Freeway 77 in Wausau.
They even obtained the United States Congress in advertising and marketing the possum. Congress joined the pleasurable by supplying the resources for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau would have a spot to carry its annual Enjoyable Day and Possum Pageant. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, amongst other issues, the Pageant appeals to Countless men and women each year, and they also find it irresistible.
Time out for a several educating of Northerners right here. The South's possum could be the identical lowly animal you get in touch with opossum, (Why use 7 letters when six will do?) It is a smallish marsupial that life in trees and exhibits its unpleasant overall body only at night. That's why, while you are inside the correct spend Florida, you could listen to possum hunters' puppies baying and barking. Treed by puppies, the possum 'freezes', so it will be simple to catch (or shoot) a person.
An inscription on the monument in the center of Wausau cites the possum's job in furnishing 'both fur and food' from the centuries. It goes to say: 'Their existence listed here has provided a resource of nutritious and flavorful food stuff in typical situations and has been An important assist to human survival when in distress and significant require.'
Chuckle If you prefer. The folks of Wausau will more info snicker as well as you - even though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.