Saturday Adventures: Punxy Phil

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Punxy Phil

The only thing Indy Anna Bones likes more than groundhogs is more groundhogs, and she squeals with joy any time she sees a fat little ground squirrel grazing on the side of the highway.

The only holiday she holds sacred is February 2nd, Groundhog Day.

Pennsylvania Dutch tradition maintains that if a 'grundsau' should emerge from his den and see his shadow, winter will continue for another 6 weeks.

There is no established scientific correlation between the woodchucks and weather, and in fact, most sport an accuracy rate lower than 50%.

The most famous weather-predicting rodent is Punxsutawney Phil, and is also the biggest and best celebrity Indy Anna Bones ever met.

Officially the same woodchuck has crawled from the stump for more than a century, his life extended by a magic ‘groundhog punch,' but the truth is that woodchucks live around 6-8 years, and Phil needs to be replaced often.

Indy Anna met Phil when he was a pup, kit, and/or cub, and his name was ‘Charlie.’

Charlie had been found on the side of the road with his eyes still closed, probably dragged from his den by a predator.

Charlie was a spirited woodchuck that loved beer and would chew through a wall if he knew there was chocolate cake on the other side.

As Charlie reached adulthood, it became clear he could not be kept in a house much longer, but he had never been wild and couldn’t be turned loose, so Charlie was passed along to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, who happened to be looking for a new Phil.

Punxsutawny is a little town near the middle of Pennsylvania, surrounded by hills and mountains and thick forests, far-removed from the urban centers of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but recognized in groundhog-culture as far back as 1886.

The town was the setting for the 1993 film, Groundhog Day, but the movie was filmed elsewhere.

The movie has achieved cult status, the shoot was responsible for breaking up the friendship of Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, neither of whom ever visited Punxsutawney.

Punxy Phil is star in his own right though, having allegedly been to space before Sputnik, and met with President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1986.

Indy Anna arrived on a rainy afternoon to find a town that had lost none of its groundhog spirit.

The buses to Gobblers Knob began transporting visitors at 3am.

Generations of people made this journey each year for more than a century to hear the wisdom of a rodent.

Up to 40,000 people flood Punxsutawney to drink, dance, and scream as Phil is brought from his stump.

Even though there was a full rain storm dropping buckets of water, Phil saw his shadow and predicted a long winter, his words translated by the Inner Circle of the Groundhog Club.

These tireless guardians have protected and upheld groundhog culture since splitting from the Elks Club.

The legend of Punxy Phil will continue influencing the weather for genertions to come.