There is a dedicate Florida that constructed a 12-foot-superior monument in the middle of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would everyone may well like to do that?
Perfectly, to start with, heroes acquire effort and time to analysis In this particular area in Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, property of fewer than 500 persons in the midst of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero to say the minimum? Nobody else puts the possum over a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, back in 1982, Wausau bought Sick and tired of remaining overlooked inside the Florida lists of exciting, fairs and festivals. Just about every put in position Florida needs a Competition. And never a single location in Florida includes a Possum Competition. Why not Wausau?
If you have never absent to Washington County, you probably will Assume I'm creating this up. When you have been to Washington County, you'll recognize - and know Here is the legitimate story.
Wausau, it ended up, experienced some fairly effective possum politicians inside the early '80s. Allow me to share certain things they attained:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the very 1st Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led into the setting up with the monument together State Highway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even got The usa Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the entertaining by supplying the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau would have a place to carry its annual click here Entertaining Day and Possum Competition. Showcasing a queen contest and possum auction, amongst other factors, the festival attracts A huge number of folks Just about every and each and every year, plus they adore it.
Trip for a few educating of Northerners right here. The South's possum is equivalent lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use seven letters when 6 can do?) It is a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and demonstrates its ugly entire body only in the evening. This is why, if you're in the correct devote Florida, you could hear possum hunters' dogs baying and barking. Treed by pet dogs, the possum 'freezes', so it's simple to hook (or shoot) one.
An inscription for your monument in the midst of Wausau cites the possum's role in supplying 'equally fur and food stuff' throughout the hundreds of years. It goes onto say: 'Their existence in this article has delivered a resource of nutritious and flavorful foods in regular occasions and it has been A necessary assist to human survival in moments of distress and demanding have to have.'
Chuckle if you want. The people today of Wausau will chuckle with you - while downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.