A spot in Florida - Let us Cheer the Lowly Possum

There is a position in Florida that designed a twelve-foot-substantial monument in the middle of town to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would anyone desire to perform that?
Very well, to start out, heroes are tough to discover Within this put in place Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, dwelling of fewer than 500 individuals in the middle of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why don't you the possum, an not likely hero to put it mildly? No one else puts the possum on the pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Next, previous 1982, Wausau acquired sick and Uninterested in becoming neglected through the Florida lists of pleasurable, fairs and festivals. Every location in Florida needs a festival. And never a single place in Florida encompasses a Possum Competition. Why don't you Wausau?
If you've got by no means frequented Washington County, you probably will Feel I'm producing this up. When you have gone to Washington County, you are going to realize - and know this can be a correct story.
Wausau, it turned out, experienced some very effective possum politicians over the early '80s. Allow me to share some things they attained:


They persuaded the Florida Legislature to proclaim the very first Saturday in August as Possum Working day in Florida. That led to your making within the monument alongside Point out Highway seventy seven in Wausau.

They even received America Congress to sector the possum. Congress joined the exciting by the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau could have a location to hold its yearly Entertaining Working day and Possum Pageant. Featuring a queen contest and possum auction, among other issues, the Competition attracts A large number of people Every single and every year, and so they love it.
Time out for some educating of Northerners here. The South's possum is identical lowly animal you simply call opossum, (Why use seven letters when 6 click here will complete?) It's a smallish marsupial that lives in trees and exhibits its ugly overall body only at nighttime. This is why, when you are inside suitable commit Florida, you could listen to possum hunters' canine baying and barking. Treed by canine, the possum 'freezes', so it's effortless to lure (or shoot) a single.
An inscription around the monument all through Wausau cites the possum's position in providing 'equally fur and food items' in the hundreds of years. It goes to say: 'Their presence in this article has provided a resource of nutritious and flavorful food items in usual periods and it's been a vital aid to human survival when in distress and important require.'
Snicker if you'd desire. The men and women of Wausau will snicker alongside - even though downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.