Newports, Wawa cups, dog poop: What’s left behind as Philly thaws

Menthol Newports. A stray shoe. Child-sized mittens. Rotten apples. A crushed pineapple White Claw.

These were a smattering of the artifacts emerging from Philadelphia’s permafrost this weekend, when temperatures neared a balmy 50 degrees on Saturday and the last vestiges of a bleak, bleak winter — feet-tall snowpack on sidewalks, in bike lanes, and smooshed between cars — were slowly, but surely, melting away.

The thawing out has left behind a Philly trash special, relics from a bygone era, before the city was buried under historic snowfall and its inhabitants were forced inside. A buffet of Wawa, Starbucks, Dunkin’, and McDonald’s cups once trapped under 9.3 inches of snow and ice have broken free. The littered receipts and Backwoods cigar wrappers sprinkled outside Fishtown bars have been reborn, soggier and muddied. The neighborhood dogs’ poop, bagged or not, has been preserved in subfreezing temperatures.

» READ MORE: Philly’s snowpack reaches a 65-year milestone, and here’s when it finally may disappear

And for the people of Philadelphia who are stirring from their hibernation, the collective cabin fever is finally breaking. On Saturday afternoon, some ventured into the open air of North Philadelphia to bask in an uninhibited sun. They wore considerably fewer layers, bared arms and legs, and voluntarily gallivanted about in February.

“We celebrate it not freezing,” said Uchenna Ezeokoli, 26, of Northern Liberties, who was seen skateboarding near Johnny Brenda’s. His “coat” was a mere flannel. “If it’s not freezing, it’s a good time.”

Lori Sanchez’s narrow, one-way Fishtown street was never plowed, she said, rendering it inaccessible and shutting her in for a week. But Saturday, strolling down Fishtown’s main throughway with sister-in-law Katherine, she felt the buzz of spring.

“That’s our hope — that it stays warm,” Sanchez, 27, said.

A streak of days when the temperature eclipsed freezing made Bala Cynwyd resident Nicholas Beck, 46, feel like he’d overcome the winter blues: “When the sun comes out, that always helps. … This is probably the turning point, I think.”

But Father Winter hasn’t totally released the city from his cruel grip: A mix of rain and snow is possible Sunday night, with the National Weather Service predicting less than an inch of accumulation in Philadelphia, and prognosticator Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter (although real meteorologists say he’s right only about 35% of the time).

For now, “come outside, the weather’s nice,” Ezeokoli encouraged.