A Place in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
A Place in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum
Blog Article
There's a put in Florida that built a twelve-foot-substantial monument during town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anybody want to do that?
Very well, to start out, heroes are difficult to investigation inside of this dedicate Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, property of less than 500 persons in the middle of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an not likely hero understandably? No one else puts the possum over the pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Next, again 1982, Wausau bought Fed up with getting overlooked from your Florida lists of entertaining, fairs and festivals. Each and every place in place Florida needs a Pageant. And never one particular commit Florida includes a Possum Competition. Why don't you Wausau?
If you've got by no means attended Washington County, you almost certainly will Assume I am Consequently, producing this up. In case you have long gone to Washington County, you are going to understand - and know this can be a accurate story.
Wausau, it turned out, had some rather effective possum politicians during the early '80s. Here i will discuss a few issues they achieved:
They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the first Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led for the developing Using the monument together Point out Freeway seventy seven in Wausau.
They even got the United States Congress to market the possum. Congress joined the fun by the funds for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have a spot to assist its annual Fun Working day and Possum Competition. That includes a Possum Pest Control Melbourne queen contest and possum auction, among the other points, the festival attracts Countless people each year, they usually like it.
Outing to get a couple of educating of Northerners below. The South's possum could be the identical lowly animal you contact opossum, (Why use 7 letters when six will do?) It is a smallish marsupial that life in trees and exhibits its unpleasant overall body only at night. That is why, when you are in the suitable dedicate Florida, you can hear possum hunters' dogs baying and barking. Treed by canine, the possum 'freezes', for that reason it really is straightforward ample to lure (or shoot) 1.
An inscription within the monument in the guts of Wausau cites the possum's function in furnishing 'equally fur and food items' over the total centuries. It goes to say: 'Their presence here has furnished a source of nutritious and flavorful food items in typical situations and it has been a crucial aid to human survival considerably more distress and demanding want.'
Chuckle if you want. The men and women of Wausau will snicker alongside - though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.