PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Amid the possibility of war with Iraq and the loss of seven astronauts aboard space shuttle Columbia, Punxsutawney became a place for people to escape the harsh realities of life and, instead, focus on a groundhog named Phil.
\nAbout 40,000 people gathered on Gobbler\u2019s Knob at sunrise Sunday and listened to the national anthem, while flags were lowered to half-staff in memory of the astronauts who died Saturday.
\nThen Phil\u2019s handlers pulled him from his stump and the woodchuck saw his shadow, signaling six more weeks of winter.
\nKathleen Perdy, a fifth grade teacher from Alliance, Ohio, tried to stay positive on her 50th birthday while enduring 33-degree temperatures. Her 26-year-old son had been deployed to the Middle East from his station in Texas on Saturday.
\n\u201cLife goes on. You learn you have to value your time, and you have to respect each other. Most importantly, you have to have fun,\u201d she said.
\nNatalie Chartier, 25, of Bellingham, Wash., was also marking a birthday at the site, that of friend Kate McGee, who turned 26.
\n\u201cWe all saw the news. It kind of dampened the first leg of the journey. Now we\u2019re focused on Phil,\u201d said Chartier, who made the trip from McGee\u2019s home in Voorhees, N.J.
\nLegend has it that Phil comes out of his stump every Feb. 2 to predict the duration of winter. If he sees his shadow \u2014 as he nearly always has in the event\u2019s 117-year history \u2014 winter is supposed to hang around for six more weeks. If not, it\u2019s a sign of early spring.
\nGiven the wintery weather much of the nation has put up with already, many weren\u2019t surprised by Phil\u2019s prognostication. Groundhog Day organizers said six inches of snow was cleared off nine acres at the Knob in advance of the woodchuck\u2019s forecast.
\n\u201cPhil didn\u2019t have much of a job. It was an easy call today,\u201d said Cindy Schultheiss, 48, of Chambersburg, who arrived at 4 a.m. for her first Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney.
\nOrganizers attributed the record crowd in part to the fact the event fell on a weekend. Attendance has ballooned so much since the movie \u201cGroundhog Day\u201d was released in 1993 \u2014 and gained a cult following among the college crowd \u2014 that shuttle buses are now used to bring visitors up to Gobbler\u2019s Knob.
\n\u201cI love it. I actually came here because of Bill Murray,\u201d said musician James Lee Stanley, 56. \u201cAre you kidding? You have to do this once.\u201d
\nPolice were out in force as Gov. Ed Rendell became the first Pennsylvania governor to attend the Feb. 2 event. But the crowd remained tame since drinking is banned on the Knob. A family section that was set up near Phil\u2019s stump to protect children simply became a place to accommodate the overflow of people.
\n\u201cYou don\u2019t have to worry about the kids getting hit in the head with beer bottles,\u201d said Phil Keller, 46, a retired police officer from Lebanon, who was taking in the scene Sunday with his family.
\nRather than fight the crowd for lodging, Jeff Hansen, 54, of Hollywood Beach, Fla., bought a three-bedroom house in Punxsutawney for $43,000 four years ago and has been visiting on Groundhog Day ever since.
\n\u201cI always wanted to live on Park Avenue. I just didn\u2019t know it\u2019d be in Punxsutawney,\u201d Hansen said.
\nOverall, the atmosphere in the unofficial weather capital of the world remained upbeat throughout the weekend.
\nBarbara Conroy said when she wanted an idea for a romantic weekend with her husband of 15 years, Bob, all she had to do was look at Feb. 2 on the calendar.
\n\u201cI thought, \u2019What a great idea for Valentine\u2019s.\u2019 It\u2019s something neither one of us has ever done before,\u201d said Conroy, 52, of Hollywood, Fla. \u201cWhy not fall in love with a groundhog?\u201d
\nDuring the Groundhog Banquet on Saturday night, a moment of silence was held for the astronauts. Rendell said it was important to have fun amid life\u2019s unexpected tragedies.
\nMany agreed. While they kept their radio on for Columbia news, Will Collins and Jenny Morrison, both 23, drove seven hours from Long Island, N.Y. to see Phil. Between hiking up to the Knob and grabbing a beer at the nearest bar, the couple were intent on partying.
\n\u201cI wanted to come and do this so I can say I did it once,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Amid the possibility of war with Iraq and the loss of seven astronauts aboard space shuttle Columbia, Punxsutawney became a place for people to escape the harsh realities of life and, instead, focus on a groundhog named Phil. About 40,000 people gathered on Gobbler\u2019s Knob at sunrise Sunday and listened to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}