Terry Traveller – This Day in History “Groundhog Day”

Terry is back with another interesting take on a Holiday. Now I’ve given up on verifying Terry’s “facts”, but I always enjoy the unique perspective. – Editor

Dear fellow traveler ~

February is home to my 7th favorite holiday, Groundhog’s Day, and is amongst the best of my handwritten and Xeroxed manuscript, “The Lost Tales of American Tradition”.

As many of you will find in my book, I presuppose t’was the mayor in 1887 who devised the festival as a promotional gimmick to increase tourism to make Punxsutawney, Philadelphia as popular as Aspen, Colorado and soon became the best promotional gimmick since uniform bread pans.

So the story goes, it was late one night when the mayor heard a scratching at the door. Thinking he had forgotten the pet cat on the porch, the ole mayor opened the backdoor and scooped up what he believed to be his notoriously large and significantly furry cat.

T’was not indeed.

In that instance the groundhog froze. The mayor froze. Their eyes met and both gave a frightful screech!

Dropping the groundhog to the floor, it ran out of the house leaving behind a very bewildered public official. And thus the phrase “keep the porch light on” was born.

The nature behind the reasoning of a groundhog and its shadow as a verified meteorological devise has been lost to the sands in the hourglass and the constructs of the “interweb”.

The tradition is simple- roust a Groundhog from its home and see its shadow it does, we have 6 more weeks of winter upon us.

If he doesn’t, we still have 6 weeks left of winter according to the calendar but the weather could be a balmy 48 degrees!

In Iowa, that’s cause enough for my Birkenstocks, black socks, and short shorts.

So this February 2nd, as you listen to traditional Groundhog’s Day Polka music, watch the beloved movie again and again, and sip on some mulled wine in the hot tub, remember fondly the reason for the celebration, and give your cat a hug.

Terry Traveller
Email: terry@discoveradel.com
Facebook: facebook.com/DiscoverAdel.TerryTraveller?fref=ts