Punxsutawney Phil Predicts More Wintry Weather

In My Humble Opinion
21

Yes, there have been years when there was no shadow:
1890, 1902, 1934, 1950, 1970, 1975, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1995, 1997, 1999

Your information is several years out of date. In association with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, I have been part of crowd control and security “on the Knob” since the mid-90’s. A brief review of partying on Gobbler’s Knob:

1890s-late1980’s: No parties, no crowds. The only people up there were the members of the Groundhog Club and a few members of the press.

Approximately 1990- MTV sends camera crews to give hip, ironic coverage of the hayseeds and their quaint groundhog ritual. As a result, students from the various colleges and universities in Pennsylvania start road-tripping for GHDay hoping to be on MTV.
1993- 2000- lots of drinking, but really very few locals. The drunks are almost entirely out-of-towners. As long as they are just drunk, we pretty much leave them alone. Disorderly conduct results in handcuffs and a spot in the Punxsutawney Municipal Complex jail.

2000-present- access to the site is pretty strictly controlled throught the use of shuttle busses. The Punxsutawney PD and the Pennsylvania State Police screen everybody getting on the busses for alcohol. We at the site, with very few drunks to deal with, now find it even esasier to target obviously intoxicated troublemakers. Whatever it may have been five or ten years ago, it is now an event gauged to be more of a family attraction rather than a drunken orgy. A wise decision on the part of the Groundhog Club and the Chamber of Commerce, I would say.

As for there being nothing to do in the area, that depends on how you define “nothing.” The town has a recreation center and movie theater. It is in the middle of some excellent hunting and fishing. Indiana PA, a university town, is an easy drive away. Pittsburgh is maybe 90 minutes away. If you expect a town of 5700 to provide the same entertainments as a major metropolitan area, then I’d say that the problem lies more in unrealistic expectations than it does in Punxsutawney.

22

My cat said that Groundhog uses a very unreliable source.

23

My calendar says that Groundhog’s Day is February 2nd. My calendar predicts that if winter is over in Minnesota in 6 weeks, it will be an early spring.

24

i read that gen. lee is retiring this year. i wonder if he will collect s.s. for his years as a weather hog.

there are quite a few ground hogs and wantta be ground hogs throughout the u.s. and canada.

www.groundhogsday.com

25

Of course there are. When has there ever been a want of chiselers, mountebanks, and wannabe’s?

26

I just had a vision of a smoke filled room, with Woodchucks sitting at the table deciding who would be their new leader. Deals would be made, bribes offered, plots would thicken and eventually a political animal would be chosen who knew nothing of meteorology.

27

According to some talking head yesterday, it was “six more weeks of weather.”

I’d lay ya odds on that…