Feb. 2 is just two weeks away, and you know what that means — a rodent will tell us whether the winter will be gone soon and be extended for six more weeks.
Baloney.
Punxsutawney Phil, that furry groundhog who somehow has been designated as the state’s foremost weather forecaster, will again offer his weather prediction.
Hogwash.
Do you know that Punxsutawney Phil — the weather rodent and his predecessors dating back 130-plus years — has compiled a 39% accuracy rate for predicting the weather? Not very impressive.
You’d have a better chance of being correct if you flipped a coin — 50-50.
Phil’s handlers — the Inner Circle of Gobbler’s Knob — actually decide in advance whether Phil will see his shadow during his appearance before the cameras.
Talk about a dog and rodent show!
Who can verify if a groundhog really can see its shadow? And, assuming it’s possible, how do these handlers know if he does or doesn’t see it?
According to History.com, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, was celebrated for the first time on Feb. 2, 1887, at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney.
It appears those Inner Circle members have come up with quite a promotion here. They’ve managed to make believers of some of us — some are upset if Phil sees his shadow, and others are delighted when they tell us he didn’t see it, and spring is on its way.
Mr. Toma’s birthday
If you want to celebrate something far more joyous, know that Feb. 2 is George Toma’s birthday. The Edwardsville native will be 97 this year.
Mr. Toma headed up field preparations for every Super Bowl from 1967 to 2023 — an amazing record.
He is affectionately known as “The Sod God, “Nitty Gritty Dirt Man,” and the “Sodfather,” and he has written books and tutored nearly every groundskeeper for almost every major sports team and facility.
Mr. Toma never forgot where he came from — he still refers to his hometown as “The Valley With A Heart” and he wants people back home to know he thinks of them often.
“I want all of Wyoming Valley to know that their fingerprints are on every Super Bowl field I prepared,” Mr. Toma always said.
Mr. Toma learned his trade at Artillery Park in Kingston under the tutelage of his Edwardsville neighbor, Stan Scheckler, when Toma was a high school teenager. That knowledge sent him on a storied career as a groundskeeper.
Mr. Toma has lived in Kansas City since 1957, after growing up on Swallow Street in Edwardsville. His father died when he was 10. Scheckler, who lived across the street from the Tomas, worked as a groundskeeper for the Wilkes-Barre Barons of the Class A Eastern League.
Scheckler took the young Toma under his wing, and Toma watched, listened, and worked hard, learning his trade. In 1946, Toma became head groundskeeper at Artillery Park. He held the position until 1950, when he entered the military and went to Korea. He returned in 1953 to find no baseball at Artillery — Wilkes-Barre had lost its franchise to Reading.
Mr. Toma can recall moments from every Super Bowl that he worked at. He talks about legendary people like Lamar Hunt, former AFL commissioner, and Pete Rozelle, the NFL commissioner who, with Hunt, forged the merger of the two leagues, thereby creating the Super Bowl.
For Mr. Toma, though, it all leads back to Edwardsville and the railroad tracks he walked along to reach Artillery Park.
When the AFL and NFL merged, Rozelle held a news conference in Kansas City. He was asked what the difference was between the two leagues. Toma remembers Rozelle saying he didn’t see much difference in the caliber of play between the two leagues. But he did say he had never seen a more beautiful playing field than the one in Kansas City.
That was Toma’s field with fingerprints from Wyoming Valley.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Toma.
One last word about potholes
It’s pothole season again, and they can wreak havoc on motorists every day.
Cars, trucks, buses, they all find the potholes. Driving along and… BANG! — You get jarred. Sometimes you lose a tire. Sometimes you need a wheel alignment. Sometimes your head hurts from hitting the roof of your car.
If you are alert, which is doubtful since most drivers are too busy texting or dialing their cell phones, you can swerve to avoid the pothole. It does happen. Just hope the oncoming vehicle in the pothole-free lane is not texting.
Potholes have been around forever. They are always on the municipal DPW to-do list.
If you see a pothole or hit one, report it.
Apparently, in this high-tech world we live in, we can send people into space, we can cook food in a fraction of the time as we used to, and we can produce a phone that takes pictures, accesses the Internet, and keeps us “connected” — yet we can’t find a way to fix potholes permanently.
Potholes, apparently, can never be fully repaired.
In the meantime, be careful.