There's a place set up Florida that developed a twelve-foot-high monument throughout city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody would like to perform that?
Properly, to start with, heroes are hard to study on this devote Florida - the Panhandle city of Wausau, property of less than five hundred persons in the course of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero as you'll count on? Nobody else places the possum on a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Next, back again 1982, Wausau acquired fed up with getting ignored inside the Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Each devote Florida wants a Pageant. Rather than a person invest Florida features a Possum Festival. Why not Wausau?
If you have not been to Washington County, you probably will think I am creating this up. For those who have been to Washington County, you can recognize - and know It is just a accurate Tale.
Wausau, it turned out, experienced some quite potent possum politicians over the early '80s. Listed below are some things they attained:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the very 1st Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led on the setting up from the monument read more along State Highway 77 in Wausau.
They even received The usa Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the pleasurable via offering the money for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau would have a location to hold its once-a-year Pleasurable Day and Possum Festival. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, between other factors, the Pageant appeals to A lot of people annually, plus they adore it.
Outing for lots of educating of Northerners below. The South's possum is the same lowly animal you simply call opossum, (Why use 7 letters when 6 will do?) It is a smallish marsupial that life in trees and shows its unpleasant overall body only at night. That is why, if you are inside the correct set set up Florida, you could listen to possum hunters' puppies baying and barking. Treed by puppies, the possum 'freezes', so It truly is not hard to capture (or shoot) 1.
An inscription round the monument in the middle of Wausau cites the possum's function in furnishing 'the two fur and food' with the generations. It goes on to say: 'Their presence right here has furnished a resource of nutritious and flavorful food stuff in standard occasions and it's been An important assist to human survival in instances of distress and critical require.'
Chuckle if you like. The individuals of Wausau will laugh along with you - whilst downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.