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

There is a commit Florida that built a twelve-foot-large monument in the center of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would any person must do that?
Well, to start with, heroes are difficult to seek out in this place in Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, home of under 500 persons in the center of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero as you'd probably count on? No one else puts the possum over a pedestal. Why don't you Wausau?
Secondly, very last 1982, Wausau acquired Unwell and Bored with staying neglected within the Florida lists of entertaining, fairs and festivals. Each set set up Florida needs a Pageant. And never a person location in Florida carries a Possum Pageant. Why don't you Wausau?
If you've got never gone to Washington County, you probably will Believe I am causeing this to be up. If you have attended Washington County, you will comprehend - and know this can be a accurate story.
Wausau, it proved, experienced some quite powerful possum politicians during the early '80s. Listed here are a number of matters they completed:


They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the 1st Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led to your developing on the monument alongside Condition Freeway 77 in Wausau.

They even acquired The us Congress to advertise the possum. Congress joined the pleasurable by way of offering the funds for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might have a spot to carry its once-a-year Exciting Working day and Possum Festival. That includes a queen contest and possum auction, among other points, the festival attracts heaps of men and women Every single and annually, as well as they like it.
Time out For several educating of Northerners here. The South's possum is comparable lowly animal you contact opossum, (Why use 7 letters when six can perform?) It is a smallish marsupial that here lives in trees and shows its unappealing overall body only in the evening. That is why, For anyone who is In the appropriate spend Florida, you can hear possum hunters' canine baying and barking. Treed by puppies, the possum 'freezes', so it really is straightforward ample to lure (or shoot) one.
An inscription over the monument in the middle of Wausau cites the possum's role in supplying 'each fur and meals' all through the hundreds of years. It goes on say: 'Their existence here has delivered a source of nutritious and flavorful foods in ordinary moments and it has been a significant guide to human survival all through occasions of distress and important want.'
Giggle in case you'd like. The people today of Wausau will laugh along with you - even though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.