The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-02-09
YOUR CHILDREN
By Olive Roberts Barton
@!ssz eY NEA sssy.sE I.sS;

 I never saw mistletoe growing until very recently. I should not have known 1t to be the romantic parasite even then had not my hus- band pointed 1t out. Two years In the war had given him an advan- tage over me in more things than machine guns.
 That was in southern Virginia. Then all through the Carolinas and Georgia whenever a tall hare tree appeared ahead with roundisll festoon of green clinging to it's up- per branches, mostly oak trees. I think, I had palpitation of the heart. Mistletoei To think of the stIngy little punches we got at Christmas for a quarter, and here was a million dollars worth grow ing in every woods and swamp!
 But suppose it is hard 70 get the lovely gray green plant that chooses such safe place on high branches to grow.
 Then the holly trees, growing just like that, beside the road! I had seen holly trees at Mt Vernon. but never growing wild, and that was another thrill. Enormous af- fairs some of them.
 Toward the south we came to our first Spanish moss. It, too, is a parasite. greenish gray feathery mass that festoons itself over big trees, often so thick as to obliter- ate the real foliage from view. It can be very lovely, but in swamp 1t has an uncanny sepulchral effect that makes one creep.
 Matters of Geography
 All this will sound odd to Southerners - these are everyday things to them. Won't they think us of the north easily thrilled, if everyone is like myself? Well, perhaps we can make an even ex- change, and show them a good old blizzard with snow several feet deep Personally I'll exchange d snowstorm for an orange farm anytime, except at Christmas. Then 1 want my snow. Yesterday I was permitted to pick oranges. Am other thrill.
 But I must get back a bit.
 l had never seen cotton grow ing. It isn't growing "now, of course, but the fields of the south ern states We travelled through are full of the old stalks with boIls here and there waving small ban bS'o VI '" "illtC "hCIC tDC pIChtTS had revoked last fall. was amazed at the toughness of the plant and the hardness of the boil. strange thing, cotton! And no wonder the seeds are hard to get out Eli Whitney was a smart man-those seeds are there to stay.
 All this sounds like a good ad- vertisement for bus line or a railroad. but 1t is merely a natural enthusiasm for new scenes and eX- periences. I am merely happy and want to write about it. This thought reminds me. however, that the school busses here in Florida are driven 90 carefully and slowly as to attract attention. They mere ly creep. And although I have seen as much care in some other states, not all of them safeguard their children so thoroughly.
 The other day l was in the old est school house in America in St Augustine, a funny little building almost under the walls of old Fort Marion, the Spanish stronghold of fifteen ninety something. h. dians then all around-and pirates too. A soldier walked past and warned of danger. Then I sup pose the children were hustled into the fort when danger was near.
 To-day our children have other menaces and traffic is the worst. | School busses should be safe guarded in every way possible and traffic rules around schools made very strict, for more children are killed on our city streets every year than were ever massacred by Indians and pirates together in all the centuries past.