Groundhog Day

[TheFugitive]

This is perhaps only thought of as a holiday here in Pennsylvania where the most famous groundhog resides in Punxsutawney, about 80 miles from my home in Pittsburgh. This used to be a real drunken tailgating affair like you'd find at a Steelers game, though I understand this has changed in recent years.  The ability to consume mass quantities of beer early in the morning used to be a mark of pride with the shift-working miners and steelworkers around here.

I used to know a guy who had lived in Punxsutawney and worked at the local radio station there. He really should have written a book because he had some of the funniest stories about that place.  The owner of the station was also the President of the society that puts on top hats and tails and goes to retrieve Punxsutawney Phil from his hole on Groundhog Day.  One year the groundhog bit him!

Most of the movie Groundhog Day was actually shot in Woodstock, Illinois.  The director thought it looked better on film than the real Punxsutawney (which is located in sort of a depressed area and is a bit run-down) and was more to the liking of the film's star, Chicago native Bill Murray.

[BillyGr]

This is perhaps only thought of as a holiday here in Pennsylvania where the most famous groundhog resides in Punxsutawney, about 80 miles from my home in Pittsburgh. This used to be a real drunken tailgating affair like you'd find at a Steelers game, though I understand this has changed in recent years.  The ability to consume mass quantities of beer early in the morning used to be a mark of pride with the shift-working miners and steelworkers around here.

I used to know a guy who had lived in Punxsutawney and worked at the local radio station there. He really should have written a book because he had some of the funniest stories about that place.  The owner of the station was also the President of the society that puts on top hats and tails and goes to retrieve Punxsutawney Phil from his hole on Groundhog Day.  One year the groundhog bit him!

Most of the movie Groundhog Day was actually shot in Woodstock, Illinois.  The director thought it looked better on film than the real Punxsutawney (which is located in sort of a depressed area and is a bit run-down) and was more to the liking of the film's star, Chicago native Bill Murray.

And, of course, the fact that the spot you see on TV where they pull said groundhog out of the "hole" isn't really where they live.  That's out in an otherwise empty field area outside of the main part of town near the (I believe I remember it to be) a senior center.

The groundhogs actually live in the library right in town - they built it with a window on the side where you can see them in their living area!

This is what happens when you travel through the area and it happens to be July 4th - not too many other things open to visit, but they were having a festival in town, so we got to look around and then drive out to the TV site to see how vacant it looks the other 364 days a year.

[TheFugitive]

That's what the guy who used to live in Punxsutawney said.  Aside from Groundhog Day the town was pretty much dead, and rather boring.