Even In Pandemic It's 'Groundhog Day' All Over Again In Woodstock

WOODSTOCK — For months now, anybody who asked me, "How's it going?" got the same smart-aleck response: "Every day is Groundhog Day."

That's a reference, of course, to the classic 1993 Bill Murray film in which a smug weatherman is forced to endlessly relive reporting whether the beloved groundhog, "Punxsutawney Phil," saw his shadow on the second day of February.

During a pandemic year when so much changed, yet every day seemed eerily similar, I felt a tinge of joy to learn that Groundhog Day would be, well, Groundhog Day — at least in Woodstock, where the movie was filmed.

Even the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club — keepers of the 135-year Pennsylvania superstition predicting the length of winter based on whether a chubby groundhog sees its shadow on Feb. 2 — ditched in-person attendance this year over coronavirus fears.

The Groundhog Day "inner circle" in Pennsylvania announced on social media that folks would have to watch Punxsutawney Phil search for his shadow via livestream.

Woodstock's locals, though, won't abandon the 26-year tradition of re-creating the Hollywood version of Groundhog Day as it was depicted on the big screen — with a polka band and groundhog named "Woodstock Willie" delivering the winter prognostication.

After all, Groundhog Day in Woodstock has never really been about a rodent's weather forecast.

It's a celebration of a movie, one of my favorites, that in some ways brought a town closer together, and put it on the map. Organizers will tell you that the midwinter event has drawn tourists from as far away as "Australia" — and "celebrities" from the movie, including two appearances by actor Stephen Tobolowsky, who played "Needle Nose Ned."

"In Woodstock, the beauty of Groundhog Day is that it is the same thing, over and over and over and over again," Groundhog Days Committee Chairman Rick Bellairs said.

While the coronavirus crisis put so many things that bring joy on hold, folks from Woodstock wouldn't let go of their tribute the movie Bill Murray told Rolling Stone was about the "beautiful, powerful idea" that "we just have to try again."

Even in the face of pandemic, townsfolk did just that. Organizers won the blessing of city leaders to host a stripped-down, socially distant celebration of the movie that made the town famous.

Sure, the indoor chili cook-off, the pub crawl around the town square and those free "Groundhog Day" screenings at the movie theater got canceled.

And you won't be able to sit at the Public House bar where the "Groundhog Day" scene in which Murray and actress Andie MacDowell "drink to world peace" was filmed to relive that Hollywood moment.

At 7 a.m. Tuesday, nobody expects big crowds, celebrities or international tourists.

"It's not like the South Side Irish Parade or the Super Bowl. If we didn't think we could do it safely, if we thought it would be a superspreader event, we wouldn't do it," Bellairs said.

"But we're going to be outside. People can wear masks. Socially distance. The thing that's special is that we'll be able to celebrate the main event in the town square like we always do."

There's something beautiful about that.