How to Fall in Love with Groundhog Day

I always thought it was funny that people made such a big deal out of Groundhog day because…well…aren’t there always six more weeks of winter when it’s the beginning of February?

That was before I went to the festivities myself. I now know that:

a. There are thousands of people out there who are nuts enough to brave 5 degree temps and possible frostbite just to see a large rodent. (Carolyn, who I’ve known since I was 14, talked me into it.)

b. A lot of them have been drinking all night.

c. Many are college students ditching school for this one pivotal day but there were a fair number of older folks like us too.

e. Some people, like me, have a sentimental attachment to Groundhog day, for reasons I won’t repeat for the sake of my young, impressionable readers.

d. Many come back year after year probably because they were drunk college students who don’t remember prior years.

f. It’s really fun and completely ridiculous, which is why we loved it so much. Actual paid journalists cover it too and have as much fun as we did. Here’s a link to a 2018 story in Mount Lebanon Magazine.

We got to Punxsutawney around 6:15 a.m. Then we circled the Walmart parking lot for at least 20 or 30 minutes looking for a spot when one miraculously opened up. (Clearly, a sign from God.) By the time we got to the guys selling bus passes, they ran out, so instead, we got a tiny black tie-wrap we could show the bus driver, which would have been used to attach the bus pass to our jacket zippers if we had a bus pass. Thankfully, the tie wrap was free.

Then we got into a bus with windows covered in a thin layer of ice due to the cold. We were deposited outside the entrance to Gobbler’s Knob and walked to a hilly clearing in front of a stage where performers sang and kept us entertained so we could ignore the fact that we could no longer feel our feet.

The moon was setting thorough a patch of trees. It had been a full Snow Moon on February first so it was still gorgeous and almost made me forget that my feet felt like bricks attached to my ankles.

People were chanting, “Phi, Phil, Phil, Phil!” with real urgency and then one of the men in a top hat on stage led us in a musical chant of, “Ground – hooooooooog!” It was beautiful.

Phil was held aloft for adoration which sent some folks into raptures with screams of PHIL and OH MY GOD!

Tension built, then one of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle members prepared for the big moment. (The Inner Circle are the men you see in photos with Phil, wearing top hats and tuxedos with bowties.) The President of the Club used the magic, acacia wood cane, which helped him translate groundhog speak into English. (And, yes they tell you all this with a straight face.) Then another man in a top hat read from a scroll announcing that Phil had indeed seen his shadow.

In case you’re not up on your groundhog lore, that means there will be six more weeks of winter. That announcement didn’t draw a lot of cheers and I heard at least one, “You suck!” from the crowd, but mostly everyone accepted it and slowly started back to the bus lines where sobering up commenced and people began to realize they couldn’t really feel their hands either.

We waited in lines for the buses which took well over an hour to arrive. I decided it would be faster and probably better, if there was any hope of restoring circulation to my feet, to walk back to our Walmart parking spot which I was told would take about a half hour. Carolyn stayed behind. I am in awe of her cold weather limbs.

I ended up walking with a fun bunch of students from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Afraid of hitting a hidden patch of ice, I latched onto the arm of a sweet young man named, Rocco, who was walking back with his friends. I found out two of his friends were young women from my hometown of New Brighton, whose names I wish I could remember…I’m thinking maybe one was Stacey? She lived not far from Rosalind’s Candy Castle.

We talked all the way back. I’m not sure if it was fun for them, but it was great for me. I learned Rocco was majoring in business and his friend was pre-law. We talked about Rocco’s family and an Italian acquaintance of his, who was a force-feeder like my mom. By the time I got to the car, I felt like I had made some fun new, young friends, plus I had blood flow in my feet again. I actually had ice in my hair and on my scarf.

After that we went to the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center where lovely women served us hot chocolate and cute little groundhog cookies. We learned that Punxsutawney Phil is also referred to as Br’er Groundhog, Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, Weather Predictor Extraordinaire, and National Treasure. We saw photos of many great weather forecasters and Phil was among them.

We were told that Phil drinks a magic elixir each year which is how he apparently stays so healthy and is believed to be 139 years old since he first started prognosticating in 1887. (They tell you this with a straight face too.) I love these people!

Oh, and eat your heart out influencers, Phil has 143 thousand followers on Facebook.

It was honestly great fun and I would do it again, with foot warmers, much thicker wool socks, and a mug full of spiked hot tea. If you’re ever in PA on Groundhog Day, call me, I’ll join you!

As for my book publication date, I am still waiting for Come On Down! A Little Story About My Italian Mom’s Big Dream, to be formatted so I believe both the paperback and ebook will be out some time in late February. I was hoping it would be sooner, but this is reality. Thank you all for patiently waiting for the paperback or ebook to come out. If you want the audiobook, which a lot of people, who I haven’t even paid, are telling me is really funny, here’s a link to my website where you can order it: https://www.frantunno.com/

As always (and definitely not mandatory) if you enjoy this blog and would like to be a supporter so I can dig myself out of the horrendous debt I’ve put myself in while self-publishing, just click on buymeacoffee.com/FranTunno And thank you to all of you who are suppporting my blog!

Oh, and Happy Belated Groundhog Day!