A spot in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum

There's a put set up Florida that developed a twelve-foot-large monument in the center of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any person want to do that?
Nicely, to start, heroes are difficult to seek out using this commit Florida - the Panhandle capital of scotland - Wausau, residence of beneath 500 persons in the middle of Washington County about 10 miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an unlikely hero to mention the least? Nobody else puts the possum in excess of a pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, in 1982, Wausau bought fed up with getting disregarded With all the Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Each spot in Florida requires a Competition. Rather than 1 set set up Florida incorporates a Possum Festival. Why don't you Wausau?
If you have in no way long gone to Washington County, you almost certainly will Believe I am making this up. For those who have visited Washington County, you can comprehend - and know It's really a legitimate story.
Wausau, it proved, had some very powerful possum politicians while in the early '80s. Listed below are a few factors they attained:


They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the Original Saturday in August as Possum Day in Florida. That led towards the developing within the monument along Condition Highway 77 in Wausau.

They even got The usa Congress to promote the possum. Congress joined the exciting by giving the resources for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could have a place to keep its annual Entertaining Day and Possum Festival. Featuring a queen contest and possum auction, between other items, the Pageant draws in plenty of people yearly, and so they obtain it irresistible.
Time out for a great deal of educating of Northerners below. The South's website possum is the same lowly animal you connect with opossum, (Why use 7 letters when six is going to do?) It is a smallish marsupial that life in trees and demonstrates its unsightly physique only at night. This is why, when you're in the suitable set set up Florida, you could listen to possum hunters' canine baying and barking. Treed by canine, the possum 'freezes', so It is really not complicated to capture (or shoot) a person.
An inscription for the monument in the center of Wausau cites the possum's purpose in supplying 'the two fur and foods' all through the hundreds of years. It goes on say: 'Their presence listed here has offered a source of nutritious and flavorful foodstuff in usual instances and has been a big aid to human survival far more distress and demanding want.'
Chortle if you like. The men and women of Wausau will chortle as well as you - while downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.