Weather keeps Sand Mountain Sam the possum from seeing shadow, but event is all about fun
The bottom line: Sand Mountain Sam didn’t see her (Sam actually is a she) shadow on Thursday. Cloudy skies and a steady rain took care of that.
Not that seasonal forecasting, as to spring's arrival, was predominant on the minds of those who braved the soaking conditions to attend the event at Bama Bucks restaurant and wild game preserve. (For the record, Sardis Mayor Russell Amos read from a scroll noting the absence of Sam’s shadow and predicting an early spring.)
It simply was a chance to have a little fun centered on Alabama’s favorite marsupial, Sam being an opossum. (The initial “o” was nowhere to be seen, mind you.)
There was a Possum Queen (Sardis High School student Morgan Howington) and her court; entertainment (bluegrass pickin’, harmonica and spoons playing, clogging and hamboning; and a “Beverly Hillbillies”-themed display, complete with Jed and Granny.
People held signs saying things like “I Love You Sam” and “Punxsutawney Who,” poking at the star of the nearly 140-year-old Pennsylvania ceremony that draws most of the national attention each Feb. 2. (Phil the groundhog saw his shadow Thursday morning, by the way, foretelling six more weeks of winter.)
Bama Bucks, known for its wild game fare, opened for breakfast afterward for those with an appetite.
More:Opossums are more intriguing than people realize
Still, Sam was the star of the event, the first full-fledged revival of an event long hosted by Sand Mountain’s WQSB radio.
“They (WQSB) did it up until 2020,” said Bama Bucks owner Terry Turk. “Then someone turned them in because they didn’t have the proper license to have a possum. So, they came to me and asked if there was any way they could do this and operate off our license.”
Turk and his family have experience in dealing with exotic animals, having launched Bama Bucks in 1998 as a whitetail deer farm, with breeding certification from the Alabama Department of Conservation and National Resources.
The facility added an elk in 2006, then a kangaroo, and now the list of animals in its game preserve includes bison, a black bear, a camel, eastern turkeys, an emu, a miniature Mediterranean donkeys, an ostrich and a ring-tailed lemur.
“We have a captive wildlife display permit with the state, and are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” Turk said.
The event was revived last year, but Turk said it was put together and announced on short notice, plus they had to use a “loaner” possum. “We couldn’t promote or advertise it in any way,” he said.
This year, they wanted their own possum. “It had to come from a legitimate breeder, and we found a breeder in Tennessee,” he said. “We brought it down here, we’ve raised it here in Alabama and it will live out its life here.”
For the most part, Sam handled the experience like a trouper, although she got a little shy with the line of folks wanting to take photos of or selfies with her.
She’ll have to get used to it, however, because Turk envisions her appearance becoming a Feb. 2 tradition.
“We had such as big turnout today, even in all this bad rain, I think it will be well worth trying to keep this little event going,” he said. “If you’re not enjoying this, not having fun, then you don’t need to be a part of it, I guess, because it was a fun day.”
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Sand Mountain now has a weather forecasting possum
