An area in Florida - Let's Cheer the Lowly Possum

There's a place in place Florida that created a 12-foot-higher monument in the center of city to exalt the lowly possum. Now, why would everyone need to do that?
Very well, to start with, heroes are tricky to obtain on this put in place Florida - the Panhandle town of Wausau, house of fewer than five hundred individuals in the middle of Washington County about ten miles south of Chipley.
Why not the possum, an not likely hero as you'll count on? No person else puts the possum about the pedestal. Why not Wausau?
Secondly, back in 1982, Wausau got Weary of becoming overlooked from the Florida lists of entertaining, fairs and festivals. Each individual position in Florida needs a festival. Rather than one particular devote Florida includes a Possum Pageant. Why don't you Wausau?
If you've never ever attended Washington County, you most likely will Imagine I'm Consequently, creating this up. Should you have long gone to Washington County, you will recognize - and know this can be a correct story.
Wausau, it proved, experienced some very impressive possum politicians in the early '80s. Allow me to share several points they completed:


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

They even obtained the United States Congress to advertise the possum. Congress joined the fun by the cash for Wausau's Possum Palace so Wausau might need a region to carry its yearly Exciting Day and Possum Festival. Featuring a queen contest and possum auction, among other issues, the festival appeals to Many individuals on a yearly basis, and in order that they love it.
Day out to get a several educating of Northerners in this article. The South's possum would be the similar lowly animal you call opossum, (Why use seven letters when six will do?) It is a smallish marsupial that life in trees and demonstrates its unsightly human body only during the night time. That's why, if you are inside the proper put in position Florida, you could hear possum hunters' dogs baying and barking. Treed by pet dogs, the possum 'freezes', so It can be straightforward sufficient capture (or shoot) just one.
An inscription for your monument in the guts of Wausau cites the possum's purpose in supplying 'equally fur and food stuff' through the entire centuries. It goes check here on to say: 'Their existence listed here has furnished a supply of nutritious and flavorful food in normal times and it has been a major assist to human survival in situations of distress and significant want.'
Snicker If you need. The folks of Wausau will snicker in addition to you - when downing baked possum and sweet potatoes.