Percy and Basil's Special Day

 

by Pa Rock

Observer of Nature

It's Groundhog Day, one of my favorite holidays of the year, one that really means something!  Groundhog day is the predictor of spring, and with the snow still covering the ground here in southern Missouri, we are all anxious for spring to bust through the ice and snow.   Sadly, with today's beautiful clear skies, all the local groundhogs, several of which reside in burrows beneath my backyard, will be seeing their shadows - making it a certainty that we will experience six more weeks of winter!

Predicting the weather, even with ground hogs, is science, a "folk science" built on generations of careful observation, and it's every bit as reliable as other weather signs, like sudden activity among ants being a sure predictor that rain is on the way, or animals having thicker coats of fur than usual, or which cutlery (knife, fork, or spoon) appears on the inside of persimmon seeds.  Folk science is where "meteorologists" turn when their Doppler is down.  We ignore what nature is telling us at our own peril!

Six more weeks of winter.  Keep chopping that wood.

I first flew into Okinawa on this date in 1972 for a one-year tour with the US Army, with no suspicion that I would eventually spend a total of four years of my life on that very small (roughly 8 miles by sixty miles) Japanese island.  When I arrived on Okinawa it was an American possession, something we had "won" in World War II.  I had been there only three months when Nixon gave it back to Japan.  Soon after I was married on Okinawa and my oldest son was born there a year later.  Forty years after that my youngest son and his wife and infant daughter visited me on Okinawa.

The movie, "Ground Hog Day" starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell premiered in 1993.   My youngest son, Tim, who was fourteen at the time, and I saw it at a "dollar" theatre in Springfield, Missouri, after it had been out several weeks and nearing the end of its theatrical run.  We left the show talking about how well it was written.  I mention that, of course, because Tim has gone on to become a successful screenwriter with  two feature-length films on his resume - and I've always felt like some of the genesis for his interest in film-writing came from the experience of watching a superb example that day in Springfield and then discussing it with his dad.  

(I have no idea why were were in Springfield that day, or why we chose that venue or that movie,  but the experience of watching it and then talking about it with Tim has always remained with me.  Thanks, Bill.  Thanks Andie.)

A friend from another location in the Ozarks whose home is in a rustic setting on hilltop overlooking a river, sent me some photos a couple of days ago of a very large groundhog who lives on her property.  She, like me, has several of the large furry mammals living close by.  My friend mentioned in her email that the big groundhog's name was "Percy," and later added that she calls all her groundhogs "Percy," and all the neighborhood opossums are known as "Joe."  I like that.

I have, according to my last farm census, at leas six groundhogs burrowed in my back yard, under brush piles, and beneath the dirt floor in the barn.  They are getting to be so fat and complacent that I can almost get up to them before they scamper off, and the lawnmower no longer fazes them.  I may name mine "Basil," in honor of the world class hotelier, Basil Fawlty.

Ranger Bob mentioned "cabin fever" in the piece that he posted here a couple of days ago about learning to write and penmanship.  I think cabin fever is my issue, too.  I haven't left the poor farm for a solid week, and I feel as though I am living the same day over and over.

Happy Groundhog's Day - especially to you, Percy - and you, too, Basil!