We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
The life-sized fiberglass representation of Punxsutawney Phil is one of 40 "Phantastic Phils" in the Pennsylvania hometown of the famed weather prognosticator. Behind the statue is Phil's Burrow, the year-round home of the famous ground hog. The burrow is built in to the city's public library, complete with glass walls, allowing Phil to be viewed both inside and out by visitors to nearby Gobbler's Knob where Phil makes his annual prediction about the end of winter.
Most of my adult life I have looked forward to February 2, Ground Hog Day. Thinking about whether the ground hog will see its shadow (not in Montana since we have no ground hogs) takes me back to my childhood. As kids, on Ground Hog Day, there would be excited speculation on the school playgrounds in southern Illinois whether we would soon be done with winter or if the miserable, wet cold would drag on for six more weeks. In our childish minds the coming of warm weather was dependent on whether the ground hog saw its shadow.
It was not until I was an adult I learned about the religious signifi...
