Technically this is a Marmot not a groundhog, but you probably didn’t know that, so it’s a groundhog for today.

Although ‘Groundhog Day’ the movie is supposed to take place in Pennsylvania. They used the city of Woodstock, Illinois for the actual shooting of the film. The square downtown is rather picturesque, and close to Chicago and I guess there were other reasons.

The ‘bed and breakfast’ used in the movie was actually a house less than a block from my grandmother’s house so I feel another tie to the show. My father said when it showed (in Woodstock) a lot of people went to see it twice, once to see the local people and locations and the second time to actually look at the storyline.

I think the same thing may have happened with “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” which has at least one shot downtown with the old county courthouse in the background.

Nothing like being a ‘scenic’ town close to Chicago.

Oh, and as to ‘famous’ I think Orsen Welles when he was young and at a local school for boys(troublesome kind) having performed on the Woodstock Opera House Stage is something too. I, myself, was in one high school production there, “She Stoops to Conquer” and one county beauty queen pageant(I was not in the running but part of the ‘entertainment’ with a group from high school). So, I can say I ‘trod the boards’ that Orson Welles trod, lol.

And Bull Valley had “Dick Tracy”. Another time.

Ah, DeJa’Vu, all over again.