Trivia

During our research on possums, we uncovered some fun possum facts, songs, and other items of interest. Some of them appear below.

• There are three roads in Greater Cincinnati referring to possums; one is called Possum Hollow Road off of Ohio 222, another is called Possum Trot Court in Butler County and the final one is called Possum Path Road in Burlington, Ky.
• Around the turn of the century, and even since then, a number of songs featuring possums have been published in the United States, including "Possum," The Latest Craze, by G.A.Scofield and J.B. Cohen in 1909 and Playing Possum, by Carly Simon in 1975.
• Possums had their place in politics in the United States in the early 1900's. For example President William Howard Taft was known as Billy Possum and his running mate was Jimmy Possum.
• During the early part of this century, possum hunting had become a popular pastime. Their pelts used to be valuable to hunters and trappers; bottles of their scent were often sold for $1.00 each or three bottles for $2.50.
• For the most part, human interactions with possums are characterized by an air of mistrust, for they in their adult years can become pesky animals, foraging through garbage (often the night that it gets set out) for food and crossing busy roads and risking their lives as well as the humans in automobiles trying to avoid them.