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 invest Florida that developed a 12-foot-higher monument during city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody might like to do that?
Properly, to start out, heroes are tricky to come back by In this particular set set up Florida - the Panhandle money of scotland- Wausau, residence of lower than five hundred individuals in the middle of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero to mention the least? Nobody else places the possum which has a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Next, in 1982, Wausau got fed up with remaining omitted inside the Florida lists of enjoyment, fairs and festivals. Each and every invest Florida requires a Pageant. Rather than a person put set up Florida features a Possum Competition. Why not Wausau?
If you have never absent to Washington County, you most likely will Consider I'm creating this up. In case you have absent to Washington County, you may realize - and know This may be a legitimate Tale.
Wausau, it proved, had some fairly potent possum politicians in the early '80s. Here i will discuss a set of points they achieved:
They persuaded the Florida read more Legislature to proclaim the incredibly very first Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led into the setting up during the monument along Condition Freeway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even obtained The usa Congress to promote the possum. Congress joined the exciting by way of giving the money for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could have a location to carry its annual Fun Working day and Possum Competition. That includes a queen contest and possum auction, among other things, the Competition appeals to Many of us Just about every and each year, and they also like it.
Day out for a few educating of Northerners right here. The South's possum is the same lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use 7 letters when six will execute?) It's a smallish marsupial that life in trees and exhibits its unsightly physique only in the evening. This is exactly why, whenever you find yourself In the suitable invest Florida, you could hear possum hunters' canines baying and barking. Treed by canines, the possum 'freezes', thus it truly is straightforward enough to lure (or shoot) a single.
An inscription around the monument in the heart of Wausau cites the possum's position in supplying 'equally fur and food items' with the hundreds of years. It goes onto say: 'Their existence below has offered a resource of nutritious and flavorful food in regular periods and it has been an important assistance to human survival in situations of distress and critical want.'
Laugh If you'd like. The men and women of Wausau will snicker along with you - although downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.