Orphie's outlook: Punxsutawney Phil is a fraud.

Oh, and there will be six more weeks of winter.

While Orphie and Phil agree on their Groundhog Day forecasts this year, the members of the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge of Quarryville took issue with "that other" groundhog this morning as they celebrated the forecasting powers of their own Octoraro Orphie.

      Orphie sees his shadow

"This is the real McCoy. All you Punxsutawneys, all you Happy Harrys, all you Wiarton Willies elsewhere can be debunked and retired," proclaimed one broadside from a member of the lodge's SNOOP Squad (Superior Nocturnal Organization for the Opposition to Phil).

"We are the first edition, we are the ones and the only ones. Let me hear an amen," the SNOOP squad reported.

This morning, the roughly 200 members of the Slumbering Lodge gathered for their 101st annual Groundhog Day celebration. The 45-minute ceremony — highlighted by a skit about pirates trying to nab Orphie — was capped by the report from Hibernating Governor Dr. James Pennington.

"After 100 years of being correct, Orphie came up and stood erect. He looked around to warn us, I'm sorry but we've got six more weeks of winter," Pennington said from atop the Pinnacle of Prognostication, actually a manure spreader set up next to the lodge, a.k.a the Chateau in the Valley of the White Rock.

German tradition held that if a hibernating animal cast a shadow on Feb. 2 — the Christian holiday of Candlemas — winter would last another six weeks. If no shadow were seen,  spring would come early, legend said.

The verdict on Orphie came after the white-coated, top-hatted members of the Slumbering Lodge caucused next to Octoraro Creek.

There, they heard reports from the various squads that make up the lodge's membership. The oft-rhyming reports either affirmed the legitimacy of Orphie or reported on his early morning activities.

"So now you have it folks, winter is far from being done. I'm going back into my hole and cuddling up to my hun bun," concluded the report from the Shale Belt Squad.

After the reports, an elaborate skit involving a zipline and two wooden ships told the story of pirates who kidnapped Orphie to keep him from extending winter by seeing his shadow.

As dramatic music played, a wooden rescue ship — powered by a mini John Deere tractor — slowly made its way to the pirate ship where Orphie was lashed to the mast. A swordfight ensued.

The pirates were finally vanquished when another rescuer zipped in from a platform on a tree some 40 feet away.

After the skit, the three new inductees into the lodge (the Baby Class) were paraded to the banks of the creek. Their representative, Craig Brown, 48, of Pequea, took a seat on the Groundhog Dunk Pole — an apparatus with a wooden arm that can swing over the creek and a seat that is controlled with pulleys.

Wearing a  yellow rain suit, orange vest and a baby bonnet, Brown was lowered into the frigid water. Three times he called out, "I believe!"

After this "trial by water" the initiation of Brown, Joseph Eby and Thomas Miller was concluded with a "trial by fire."

The trio, as well as an associate member, got on their hands and knees facing the creek. A cannon was fired behind them, sending smoke and newspaper flying and concluding another year of Groundhog Day silliness on the banks of the Octoraro Creek.


Staff writer Chad Umble can be reached at cumble@LNPnews.com or 481-6031.