Chuckles Says: "No Shadow; Early Spring"

Practically everyone who attended the  Groundhog Day festivities Wednesday – or at least the almost two dozen or so stout souls who braved the elements on a cold, snowy, sleety winter’s morning – had their hearts set on an early spring.

And, Connecticut Chuckles VII, the official , emerged from her burrow Wednesday morning and did not disappoint. She surveyed the crowd (a little sparser than she is used to), nibbled on a banana, and then calmly, nonchalantly whispered into the ear of Manchester Mayor Lou Spadaccini, who speaks fluent groundhog, the words that pretty much every Connecticut resident is dying to hear right about now: no shadow; early spring.

“I think we could all use a little relief from the current weather conditions,” a grateful Spadaccini said after Chuckles prediction, if for no other reason than that an early spring would spare the town’s already battered snow removal budget. “I can only suspect it was the ice storm that prevented her from seeing her shadow.” 

Although the entire proceedings may seem like a bit of a lark, Bob Eckert, the museum’s executive director, said in reality it is anything but, and that Chuckles takes her role as Connecticut’s foremost (and furriest) weather prognosticator exceedingly seriously.

“She’s been working on this for months. She’s got satellite models and things and she’s been talking to meteorologists around the world,” Eckert said. “It’s a lot of pressure, really, for a little rodent to have the entire state of Connecticut relying on her.”

But lest that burden seem too much for even Chuckles to bear, Eckert stressed that the groundhog was a “professional” who was “glad to do her civic duty” for the residents of the Nutmeg State. He said Chuckles refused to postpone the event, even in the face of the wintery mix Wednesday morning.

“We talked to her about postponing,” Eckert said. “She just wouldn’t hear it.”

For her part, after she had fulfilled her duty Wednesday, the ever-humble Chuckles just sat on the stage nibbling a banana, and then another. Soon after, she would return to her enclosure to get started on next year’s prediction.

“I’m pretty excited” Joanna Snyder, a volunteer coordinator at the museum, said after Chuckles had made her announcement. “And I know all my volunteers are too.”

Spadaccini noted that in the four years that he has been mayor, Chuckles has twice seen her shadow, signifying a longer winter, and twice not, indicating the early spring.

Eckert said that Chuckles predictions were “100 percent accurate.”

Spadaccini wished that he too, as mayor, had a 100 percent accuracy rating, but said he would settle for the early spring.

This article was originally published on .