Punxsutawney Phil and Groundhog Day

After spending a week in State College running Penn State’s iMBA residency program, a detour to Punxsutawney, PA, home of Phil, prognosticator extraordinaire, was in order. Having lived in Pennsylvania nearly all my life, I was raised with Groundhog lore, anticipating every year whether Phil, the furry “seer of seers” would see his shadow. If he did, that meant six long weeks of winter to come. Around February in Pennsylvania, I get tired of seeing snow. The glow of Christmas has worn off and spring seems far away.

Back in 1993, when I saw Bill Murray in Groundhog Day (the movie), I thought about how fun it would be to actually be part of the celebration, which about 40,000 people attend each year. Watching Murray’s character walk from his bed and breakfast to the town square looked so quaint, I thought that someday, I’d like to do the same.

Imagine my surprise when I found out during my visit to Punxsey on Friday, that none of that really exists! The movie was filmed in Illinois because Punxsey is too far away from film labs. And to top it all off, the actual ceremony doesn’t take place in town, it’s happens in Gobbler’s Knob, two miles outside of town.

I’m sorry to say Punxsutawney, that I won’t be attending your celebration in 2010. This just goes to show you that Hollywood is too good to be true.