My friend, Mr. Cranky, posted this li'l fellow on Facebook today and I can't leave my post without passing this along.
Seems like Punksutawney, Pa. isn't the only town here in the U S of A that has this ridiculous tradition. They have one of these in Wallingford, a neighborhood of Seattle. "Wallingford Phil" lives in the crawl space under the Safeway on 45th St. Having survived being eaten by the homeless, ol' Phil has been faithful, coming out on Feb. 2nd every year.
Feb. 2nd traditionally is the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. In Seattle it's darn hard to tell where the middle is, especially between two equally cold and grey periods of time. Thankfully, Phil knows, and his emergence helps reset the clock.
Folks in Seattle can't remember a time when ol' Phil has not seen his shadow on February 2nd.
"...yeah, it's usually cold and freeze-ass windy around these parts come the first week of February..." chimes in Fred Mortz of Wallingford. ".....dang if it ain't sunny though.."
And danged if it doesn't always come true in Seattle. 6 more months of winter. The skies break sunny for a week or so, right after the annual soaker on the 4th of July. Then it's time to shake it of and hobble back to the crawl space.
It's always something.......
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