THOUSANDS WATCH AS TORCH WINDS THROUGH CAPE GIRARDEAU, PERRY COUNTIES

They wore bright slickers and huddled together under umbrellas, waiting for the Olympic flame to roll into town.

People of all ages, races, nationalities and classes lined roadways Monday in Cape Girardeau and Perry counties. It seemed everyone had Olympic fever and wanted to catch a glimpse of the torchbearers as they ran by.

Some traveled from far away to do it, like Tara Johnson and Judy Schutte of O'Herrin, Ill. The teen-agers, soaked to the skin thanks to Monday's rain, said they had taken their last trip to see the flame.

"Mom signed up for a trip and won it, and she gave it to us," Schutte said. "We ate lunch, came here and now we're going home."

"It wasn't much," Johnson said. "I don't think I'd stand in the rain to see it again."

Others on the route refused to let the downpour drench their enthusiasm, like Jerry Ogles of Cape Girardeau. He was on the job in 1984 when the torch went by on Highway 61 near Perryville.

This year, he brought his 15-year-old son, Mitch, to the Common Pleas Courthouse so they could see the flame together.

"It was impressive last time and it was again this time," Ogles said. "It was a part of history."

"Breathtaking," his son agreed. "I was sort of sorry I wasn't out running with it."

Vicky Keller, also of Cape Girardeau, runs regularly and said she tried to participate as a torchbearer. She was left on the sidelines this time, watching it pass by Capaha Park and then the Jackson city limits.

"Next time, I will try to get on the relay harder than we did," Keller said. "We thought about it at first, and after all the hoopla, we found out how exciting it is."

Approximately 40 people waited patiently at the junction of Highway 61 and Route A at Uniontown in Perry County to see the Olympic torch pass by, although it was an hour late in coming.

Even when advance officials told the crowd to be alert because the torch was on a motorcycle and would go by quickly, people still were eager to catch whatever glimpse was available.

But to the surprise and delight of young and old, the torchbearer's motorcycle did not speed by, but instead stopped, and the torchbearer spent 10-15 minutes talking to the onlookers.

Many people in the crowd reached out and touched the torch's stem, while their friends and relatives took pictures.

When the motorcycle slowly began to leave, the appreciative crowd applauded.

"It was really neat," said Antonia Ponder of Frohna. "I got to touch the torch. I never thought I would ever see anything like that."

Kathleen Schlichting of Frohna said the experience of seeing the torch up close was worth the wait. "It was nice that they stopped to let everybody touch the torch and get a better look at it," she said.

And 8-year-old Meghan Roth of Frohna also was appreciative. "It was exciting that it came by our town," she said. "We might never see it again."