There is a set in place Florida that designed a twelve-foot-high monument all through city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody need to do that?
Well, to get started with, heroes are tricky to locate on this spot in Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, dwelling of less than 500 folks in the guts of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero to mention the the very least? Nobody else places the possum around a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Next, last 1982, Wausau acquired Fed up with being overlooked With all the Florida lists of exciting, fairs and festivals. Just about every put set up Florida requires a festival. Rather than one particular spot in Florida includes a Possum Festival. Why don't you Wausau?
If you haven't frequented Washington County, you almost certainly will Feel I'm making this up. When you have been to Washington County, you can have an understanding of - and know this can be a real story.
Wausau, it proved, had some fairly potent possum politicians over the early '80s. Here i will discuss a pair of issues they achieved:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the Original Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That check here led towards the building through the monument along State Highway 77 in Wausau.
They even received The usa Congress in marketing the possum. Congress joined the pleasurable by providing the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have an area to assistance its yearly Pleasurable Day and Possum Festival. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, amid other factors, the festival attracts loads of men and women on a yearly basis, and so that they find it irresistible.
Trip for lots of educating of Northerners listed here. The South's possum will be the identical lowly animal you contact opossum, (Why use 7 letters when six will do?) It is a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and shows its unpleasant entire body only at nighttime. This is why, any time you end up within the suitable put in place Florida, you could listen to possum hunters' dogs baying and barking. Treed by puppies, the possum 'freezes', so It will likely be simple enough to hook (or shoot) one.
An inscription on the monument in the heart of Wausau cites the possum's purpose in delivering 'the two fur and food' through the centuries. It goes on to say: 'Their existence right here has furnished an origin of nutritious and flavorful foodstuff in usual times and it has been a vital guide to human survival throughout instances of distress and demanding require.'
Laugh If you prefer. The individuals of Wausau will chuckle in conjunction with you - even though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.