PETA and Punxsutawney Phil

So as I write today, Punxsutawney Phil is getting ready to see if he can see his shadow and a small town in Northwestern Pennsylvania continues a time honored and fun tradition of making the harsh winter season just a bit more tolerable and more fun. 

So, of course, in come the nasty, frowny faces to try to spoil the fun -- not to mention to try to exert control over others.   Enter PETA who want to end it all for everyone.  Now if you are from NW PA you know that, as a writer friend of mine says, "Phil is the most pampered groundhog ever...."  PETA doesn't care.  They have gone over the edge.  With that in mind ...

I perhaps have never mentioned in this blog that I wore a 100+ year old mink coat during the winters of upstate NY during my last two years of college in Saratoga Springs, NY.  My mom mailed the coat to me as a surprise and ... to keep me from freezing as I trudged through the snow and wind there.  This treasure of a coat had been discovered in an attic somewhere and belonged to someone from from long ago.  Can't remember how it came into my Mom's hands... but it was incredibly warm and wonderful -- even in 28º below zero weather.  

Later-- the coat moved on through two other college students -- one of whom named it Fiona.  I wonder where that lovely, albeit shedding, coat is now? I was so thankful for the warmth the mink provided.  Fiona wasn't in the best shape in 1970-71, so am thinking she is long gone now, but I remember her fondly.  

Anyway -- PETA would have protested me, but then again -- the only protestors in fashion back then were "anti-war".  I didn't fit in with them either. I had too many friends in the military sacrificing their own lives to protect our country .. including the protestors who had no qualms about crushing the rights of others. Case in point -- some of these foul mouthed screamers,  trapped me in an elevator for over an hour during the Vietnam moratorium to yell and spit at me because I was carrying a text book -- so obviously was going to underground classes and trying to get an education. They apparently opposed my right to getting an education as well.   They were about as open-minded, self-righteous and tolerant as PETA is today.  They wore the same nasty, frowny faces as well.  So sad really. I wish that people could find their way to joyful at least sometimes -- or/and let other people live their own lives in peace. The thing is -- I bet I was way warmer than they were.  So there is that.  

Note... PETA did not stop Phil.  He saw his shadow and continues to be pampered in Punxsutawney ... and so it goes.