Happy Groundhog Day!

This isn’t Phil; it’s an anonymous groundhog
in Shenandoah National Park

Hey, this isn’t Phil either. It’s just some
Wisconsin groundhog.

Longtime readers of this blog may feel like they’re experiencing their own Groundhog Day time loop as they read today’s post. 

That’s because as usual, I’m posting some vintage postcards and reviewing some of Punxsutawney Phil’s forecasts of the past as reported in the Journal.

We’ll start out on Groundhog Day 1961 – sixty years ago today – which fell on a Thursday. It had been pretty frosty in Lorain, with a low of 4 degrees forecast for that night. (I hope everyone took Reddy Kilowatt’s advice back then and bought one of those newfangled “electric bed coverings.")

While the Groundhog forecast made the front page that year, the article curiously neglected to name which furry meteorologist was doing the predicting. 

At least the Journal gave Mr. Groundhog’s forecast priority on the front page over a rather boring article about the possibility of nuclear war being triggered with the push of a button.

Ten years later on Groundhog Day 1971, Lorain was once again in the icy grip of Old Man Winter. This was the Journal front page article the day before. 

(Note that the cute photograph was taken by our man Gene Patrick. He had a real rapport with young people – in this case, Lorain High School students Colleen O’Brien and Brian McNulty.)

Unfortunately, Punxsutawney Phil didn’t make the front page that year. His forecast (six more weeks of winter, what else?) was buried like an ill-tossed Journal in the snow at the bottom of the Page 2 article about the weather.

Anyway, here’s hoping you have a fun and safe Groundhog Day!

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For more Phil-related Phun, er, fun, why not visit some past Groundhog Day posts?

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UPDATE (Feb. 3, 2021)

Here’s a screen grab of Phil yesterday as the members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club read the "six more weeks of winter” prediction from the scroll. Phil looks kind of ornery!