WARM WEATHER TEASES OF EARLY SPRINGTIME

Not even the threat of a groundhog seeing his shadow and announcing six more weeks of winter could quell the springlike enthusiasm of those who ventured outside on the first day of February to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather.

With highs reaching the upper 50s and no precipitation on the horizon, area residents crowded parks, golf courses and car washes for the opportunity to enjoy the weather.

Eddie Phillips of Scott City brought his 5-year-old daughter Lindsay to Capaha Park in Cape Girardeau to roller skate.

"I had planned to be a couch potato today, but she talked me into this," Phillips said.

Holding his daughter's hand as she bent down to pick up three pennies from the pavement, he added, "This kind of weather in the middle of winter? I can't ask for anything better."

Lindsay, who has been roller skating and ice skating for a year, smiled.

"I'm pretty good, ain't I?" she said.

At Cape County Park, Jason Hillman, a student at Shawnee Community College, set his roller blades aside for a while as he watched four thick pork steaks sizzle over the hot charcoal of the grill. He had some chicken and potatoes that he was about to put on as well.

"We've been out here 30 to 45 minutes already," he said. "It's a nice day."

Nearby, three of his friends broke out mitts and a baseball and played catch.

Bill Huston, a graduate of Notre Dame High School and Hillman's classmate at Shawnee, was excited about the weather because it allowed him to practice ball outside.

Huston plans on traveling to Florida in late May where he has a tryout before some professional scouts at a baseball academy.

"It's a long shot," he admits, but adds that the nice weather helps him with his training.

"I can get out, toss the ball and run sprints on grass instead of on concrete," he said.

His friend Amanda Gdovicak, a nursing major and collegiate gymnast at Southeast Missouri State University, complained for a moment about having to use a catcher's mitt instead of a fielder's glove. But the complaints soon fade.

"I like to bring the dogs out on a day like today and run all over with them," she says, pointing to the three dogs that she and her friends brought to the park.

"It's just nice to be out," she said.