My Groundhog Day story

Back in the early 70’s a few of us here at PSU got a great idea.  We decided we’d celebrate Groundhog Day with a party and a trip to Punxsutawney.  Feb 2nd fell on a Friday that year (which with a little quick internet research tells me that the year was 1973).  About 30 of us signed on.  One of the guys was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and he arranged for the use of the fraternity party room.  We also chartered a bus from the local bus company. 

One keg rental and we were good to go.  The party started about midnight and went until about 3:30 AM when the bus showed up.  We all piled onto the bus, dragging the keg with us and headed to Gobbler’s Knob.

Punxsy is about 80 miles from PSU but in those days it was all back roads and probably well over a two hour trip. Lo and behold disaster hit us about 45 minutes out when our bus broke down. We had to wait almost an hour before a backup bus was located to fill in for the disabled one (rounding up a bus and driver at 4:30 in the morning evidently isn’t the easiest thing to do). With that delay we knew it was going to be a close call as to whether we would make Phil’s appearance or not.

Sure enough we got to the Knob just in time to see everyone come pouring down the hill. Amazing no one seemed to mind (probably a result of the alcohol). On to phase three of the escapade – the Punxsutawney Country Club where we had reservations for the annual Groundhog Day Breakfast and where we got to meet the Groundhog Day Queen. We were treated like royalty by all the Punxsy folk – this was well before the movie and before it became a really huge deal to head to Punxsy – they thought it was great that a group would come all the way from State College.

Despite the amount of alcohol that we all had consumed, we were all on our best behavior and there were no incidents (I honestly don’t think we could do the same in this day and age – not to sound like an old fogey but every weekend here I see kids that just don’t know how to handle their alcohol). However, by 10:00 am or so, we were all pretty much exhausted. Word came that it was time to go and we all piled back onto the bus.

The ride back to State College was pretty quiet as the whole crowd tried to grab some shut eye. We pulled into State College and exited the bus in front of the fraternity house. I was at the back of the bus and was the last one off. Waiting at the bottom of the bus steps was my friend Chuck Gambone, who was basically the driving force behind the whole trip (Chuck was in grad school but worked part time for a travel agency during football bowl season so he knew all the ins and outs of making the trip arrangements).

Chuck’s first words to me were “Where’s GW?” (GW was Chuck’s roommate). I looked at him inquisitively. He repeated “GW. Wasn’t he in the back with you?” “Nope” was my answer. A little bit of panic spread across Chuck’s face at that moment as he realized that he had left his roommie in Punxsy.

We later found out that GW had gone to the bathroom just as we all piled onto the bus. When he came out he initially thought that we had just pulled the bus away for a bit to pull a joke on him. It wasn’t until 10-15 minutes passed that he realized that we really had left him behind. There weren’t any cell phones in those days so he had no way of alerting us to the problem.

Chuck was really upset but didn’t really know what to do. He figured he’d better hurry home guessing that GW would probably be calling often. Chuck raced home, walked into the apartment and was promptly greeted in a not so friendly manner by GW who was already home.

Fortunately for GW, his new Punxsy friends had taken good care of him. As soon as they realized that he’d been left behind they took him over to a table where the local Punxsy morning radio personality was doing his show. The host relayed the story about GW being stranded and asked his listeners if anyone was headed to State College that day. Within minutes someone had called in and offered GW a ride to SC. He actually wound up beating the bus home.

Chuck still lives in State College and whenever I run into him around this time of year, we have a good left about the failed Punxsy trip.