December 4, 1941

A Polk County Possum Club (PCPC) banquet was held; three days later, the radio carried the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The banquets were suspended during World War II. The PCPC had begun when attorney J. I. Alley wrote a letter, dated December 11, 1913, to Mena (Polk County) mayor John H. Hamilton that read, in part: “The undersigned has recently seen and heard of much of your boastful conduct and self praise with reference to possum hunting… Therefore believing that others should share at least a part of those honors, I challenge you to a single or a series of possum hunts most suitable to yourself and those with whom you train.”