Firehouse.com

--

Feb. 2--Franklin Phil sits in the lounge at Franklin Volunteer Fire Company on the corner of King and Franklin streets in Chambersburg, living the easy life these days as a company mascot.

Phil gets little attention unless the company has visitors, is in a parade when the stuffed groundhog goes for a ride-along on some of the equipment, or when firefighters are asked to dust him off and bring him out for a photo op session.

The story of how Franklin Phil came to take up residence in the room where Franklin volunteers watch television is blurry to a younger generation of firefighters.

Old-timers remember the occasion well.

Early in the 1980s, the Franklins hosted a party attended by volunteers from Fayetteville and New Franklin Fire companies.

"Back then we were called "the groundhogs,'" William Kelly remembers.

Two firefighters from Fayetteville brought a dead groundhog to the party, and put it near the company's front door. Franklin firefighters brought it in, dressed it up in a Franklin T-shirt, and then "one thing led to another," Kelly said.

Franklin's volunteers decided to get the groundhog stuffed and keep him as their mascot.

They nicknamed him "Franklin Phil."

For a few years in the last decade, the Franklin version of the weather-forcasting groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, was in the limelight -- or at least the early morning light -- one day a year when firefighters trotted him out, sometimes in the snow, to make an appearance in the station's parking lot.

On those cold Feb. 2 mornings from 2000 through 2003, firefighters would bring their mascot to the parking lot, often hiding him behind an earthen bank at the side of the lot, then as the sun came up -- or perhaps didn't come up -- slowly have him peek over the bank, then make a full appearance to see if they could see his shadow.

When the event was first staged, Franklin's vice president, Marvin "Red" Stoner, said firefighters hoped the idea would take hold and become a community event.

The first year about 20 people huddled in 10-degree weather to watch as Kelly and another firefighter, Doug Gayman, hoisted the woodchuck over the snow-covered bank.

The crowd saw Franklin Phil's shadow and his firefighter-handlers declared that the area would have six more weeks of winter. The prediction for the next two years was the same.

Finally, with little response from the community, the annual event was discontinued.

------

Vicky Taylor can be reached at 262-4753 or vtaylor@publicopinionnews.com