There is a place in position Florida that built a twelve-foot-higher monument throughout city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anyone desire to accomplish that?
Properly, initially off, heroes acquire time and effort to search out with this dedicate Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, household of under five hundred persons in the guts of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an not likely hero To place it mildly? No person else puts the possum on the pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Next, back again 1982, Wausau acquired Weary of being ignored Along with the Florida lists of fun, fairs and festivals. Just about every place in position Florida desires a Competition. Rather than a single dedicate Florida encompasses a Possum Competition. Why not Wausau?
If you have not attended Washington County, you most likely will Believe I am generating this up. Should you have visited Washington County, you may recognize - and know This may be a true story.
Wausau, it ended up, experienced some fairly highly effective possum politicians during the early '80s. Here's a set of points they completed:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the 1st Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led for the constructing from the monument along Point out Freeway 77 in Wausau.
They even bought the United States Congress in marketing the possum. Congress joined the fun by offering the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have a spot to assistance its annual Pleasurable Day and Possum Festival. Showcasing a queen contest and possum website auction, between other matters, the Competition draws in a lot of folks every year, they usually locate it irresistible.
Trip for a several educating of Northerners below. The South's possum is equivalent lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use 7 letters when 6 will accomplish?) It is a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and exhibits its hideous body only during the night. That is why, when you find yourself within the proper place set up Florida, you may listen to possum hunters' puppies baying and barking. Treed by canines, the possum 'freezes', so it is actually not hard capture (or shoot) one particular.
An inscription across the monument in the center of Wausau cites the possum's job in offering 'equally fur and food items' throughout the centuries. It goes on say: 'Their presence below has offered a resource of nutritious and flavorful food items in typical times and it's been an essential help to human survival way more distress and critical need.'
Chuckle if you like. The people today of Wausau will chortle in addition to you - even though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.