A Stuffed Dead Groundhog Telepathically predicts Winter or Spring
Wow. Oh wow. The title says it all. Even though I’ve lived in York for 8 years, this is ALL NEW information to me. I can’t imagine why we would keep this on the down low….
Poor Richard gets a kiss from an inductee. Photo from The York Dispatch.
Apparently I live in a town that determines the weather through a medium that telepathically communicates with Poor Richard, our resident stuffed groundhog. Yes, he is dead. And yes, we have a resident stuffed groundhog. I believe Poor Richard used to look for his own shadow when he was still kicking but after he rode on up to Groundhog heaven, we continued to use his cold dead taxidermy stuffed body. The medium, or the Exalted Communicator, as this York Dispatch article refers to him, “gives the prognostication to the public at large … straight from hog heaven.” The Groundhog club members wear white robes and black top hats, while the inductees wear baby bibs and are required to kiss Poor Richard, as seen in the picture provided by the York Dispatch. I can’t make this stuff up.
If you’re not familiar with Groundhog’s day traditions, they’re pretty big in PA. Most notably in Punxsutawney, where the whole world is waiting with bated breath on Punxsutawney Phil’s predictions. If Phil sees his shadow, we’ll have 6 more weeks of bad winter weather, if he doesn’t, then the worst part of winter is over.
But York also has another notable Groundhog predictor in the area. Over in Dover a person in the Dover Doug Groundhog costume makes his prognostication for all to hear. And yes that is the same Dover township you probably heard about all over the news, where they wanted to teach Intelligent Design in Science classes. Not that I’m implying that there is a connection…Just saying.
Anyone else think we should make Groundhog Day into a National Holiday? I don’t know that as a non-member I would be able to witness Poor Richard’s predictions (oh to be a fly on the wall), but it would be pretty sweet to have the day off anyway. Either way I’m looking forward to seeing what Poor Richard has to telepathically predict tomorrow. My guess is 6 more weeks of winter, but I lack the ability to communicate with dead groundhogs. C’est la vie. We’ll have to wait and see what the Exalted Communicator has to say.
