A location in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum
A location in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum
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There is a devote Florida that crafted a 12-foot-substantial monument in the middle of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anyone would like to perform that?
Properly, to start, heroes consider effort and time to exploration During this position in Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, house of much less than five hundred people in the middle of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero to mention the minimum? No one else puts the possum with a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Next, last 1982, Wausau received Ill and weary with being neglected during the Florida lists of fun, fairs and festivals. Each devote Florida requires a Competition. And never a single location in Florida incorporates a Possum Festival. Why not Wausau?
If you have not gone to Washington County, you most likely will Believe I am producing this up. For those who have been to Washington County, you will fully grasp - and know This is actually the accurate story.
Wausau, it ended up, experienced some pretty effective possum politicians in the early '80s. Here are certain things they accomplished:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the pretty very first Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led towards the building with the monument together Point out Highway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even bought America Congress to current market the possum. Congress joined the enjoyable by delivering the resources for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have a place to maintain its yearly Pleasurable Working day and more info Possum Pageant. Featuring a queen contest and possum auction, amongst other items, the festival appeals to Lots of individuals every year, and so they like it.
Day trip For most educating of Northerners here. The South's possum is analogous lowly animal you simply call opossum, (Why use 7 letters when 6 will execute?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and displays its unattractive body only during the night. That is why, when you're throughout the right spend Florida, you could hear possum hunters' dogs baying and barking. Treed by dogs, the possum 'freezes', so It's going to be quick to hook (or shoot) a person.
An inscription about the monument in the midst of Wausau cites the possum's role in offering 'equally fur and food stuff' with the hundreds of years. It goes onto say: 'Their existence below has furnished a supply of nutritious and flavorful food in normal situations and has been a significant aid to human survival in times of distress and important want.'
Chortle In order for you. The folks of Wausau will chortle along with you - although downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.