Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1947-08-28
MONTGOMERY SIDELIGHTS
BIZ ELSIE WHITE HAINES


Perhaps no column ever wrote
received more comment than the
one of two weeks ago when / lost
my "rose colored glasses" and ex-
posed a few of my pet peeves. Even
from Florida comes a comment
from Ruth Billhimer.
AS SO many of you have told me
you enjoyed travelling to California
with miss Lucy Barnsley-think
shall share Ruth's delightful let
ter with you verbatim. For the
benefit of any new readers, Ruth is
Mrs. Robert Billhimer, formerly of
Washington Grove = for over two
years assistant to the editor of
THE SENTINEL. The Billhimers re-
Gently moved to Florida and bought
restaurant in DeLand.
Dear Elsie:
just finished reading The Senti-
mel = it arrives in the first mail
every Monday morning-and your
column held me spellbound. / am
glad you got it off your chest, and
/ know just the sort of things that
inspired it! You can't imagine the
pleasure we all get from reading
the S. 1t has so much news in it. /
will send you the county paper
called The Volusia Mirror, and also
a copy of our daily. ! know you will
get a laugh out of the news items
sent in by the local correspondents
in The Mirror. After reading five
or six columns all beginning with
Mr.. and Mrs.-you will appreciate
your little pals who occasionally
start with some other phrase. The
daily is far superior to your late
lamented Independent. It occupies
a two story building around the
corner from the restaurant.
When you think of Florida you
think of beaches, palm trees and
tropical flowers, don't you? Do you
connect cowboys in any way with
Florida? Well, believe it or not, we
are on the edge of the big cattle
section of Florida. Kissimmee,
which is actually the cattle capital
is about so miles south. But
we see cowboys here in their boots,
and big hats. Not day passes that
we don't see at least one car with a
tiny two horse trailer containing
two saddled cow ponies. Florida
has about 100000 cattle. The
Brahma breed is popular because
of its tick resistant qualities. But
other, breeds are here too. When
you see the ground they pasture
on-grass, palmetto with always a.
bayou of swamp present-you think
since Rattlers and Moccasins are
so prevalent.
We. have been bathing nearby at
q place called Blue Springs. YSti
would love it. The water is tho
color of the high necked buttons
down-the-front aqua dress / used
to wear to work. The blue stream
flows down between banks covered
with moss hung water oaks and
palm trees. The underbrush looks
like jungle. There are three docks
with diving boards going out into
the stream and also about four
boats which folks can use to row
to the "boil", the source of the
stream. The first time we went
there we decided we wanted to see
the boil, and not knowing that any
one could use the row boats, the
children and. walked up. Well, be-
fore we had gone 100 feet we felt
like we were in a Tarzan movie.
We followed the path, and that in
yolved climbing over trees, under
tree trunks, around palms, and
across bayous. There was even
tree that had to be walked to cross
a stream When we finally got to
the boil, we found that it wasn't a
geyser as we had expected, but just
a "boil," 1t looked like a big kettle
of blue water boiling on a stove.
Going back, we got trapped on the
boil side by swarm Of bees, and
finally, when some young men came
along, they led us through a bayou
which was waist deep, and awfully
mucky feeling between the toes,
until we. had by-passed the bees.
The man who owns Blue Springs
hasn't done anything to civilize ii
except build the docks. Some
planks are nailed between trees for
folks to sit on, and that is about
all. Incidentally, the water is very
clear and you can see everything
on the sandy spring bottom. We
like particularly to watch the cat