Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-08-03
BY CHARLES G. CRITIC


DOWN UPON THE SUWA-
NEE RIVER. Aug. 3.-We're in
Florida. We made it. We passed
over the State line at high
noon.
OF course if Stephen Collins
Foster could have heard the
deafening chant of Gregory, 8.
and Chuck, three-and-o half,
as we drove in, he probably
would have given up music at
an early age.
Here we are in Florida. Here
we are in Florida" they yelled
to a tune that sounded some
thing like a female coyote call
ing her young.
Then we hit a woodpecker.
Then we had a picnic.
The woodpecker mashed it.
self into the radiator core and
had to be pried loose. 1t was
buried dutifully among used
oil cans at a filling station
nearby.
The picnic was held in a
State Park, a beautiful reserve
of trees dripping with Spanish
moss.
/, too. dripped with perspi-
ration trying to start fire
with moss, logs and finally
with charcoal brickettes had
bought earlier in Georgia, an
ticipating such an emergency.
(All I've been able to do with
the gasoline stove is watch 1t
leak and shudder at the hor-
row of it all if l should light
a match.)
The moss wouldn't burn,
the logs wouldn't catch and
there wasn't a newspaper to
be had. Mote to my wife:
Please quit throwing away the
four bring home every morn
ing. Needed to start fires
here.l
Florida Cowboys
Aunurndale, Fla. - OF shoes
and ships and sea shells, of
cabbages. cowboys, pirates and
things.
To paraphrase a bit. that's
what travelling on an auto va
cation without wife but with
two bouncy little boys and a
sometimes bored teen-age girl,
consists of.
The shoes belong to the
youngsters - but one would
think they are part of the
landscape. At every beach
stop. off come Gregory's can
vas oxfords. When we return
to the car. a search has to be
instituted to retrieve the sandy
footwear.
Chuck changes from canvas
to oxfords periodically. MY
feet burn standing in this car"
he says. And that's what both
boys do. stand most of the
way.
Gregory's problem sums up a
condition apparently unno-
ticed by Detroit's car designers.
Just how can a 3la-year old
see the world if. when sitting
down in the back seat, he
can't see out the window?
We followed U. S. to Mel
bourne. then Florida 1872
through Holopaw. st. Cloud
and KisSimmee which is the
COW capital of Florida.
It was outside Kissimmee
that we saw real cowboys"
The area seems more like
Texas or Arizona, what with
horse-riding cowboys, complete
with 10-gallon StetsonS, Lewis
and cowboy boots. Florida has
become a neutrality-suspicious.
State in recent years and the
herds are evidence of it.
Cows and cowboys had a
profound effect on the boys.
They Immediately dumped
the sea shells out of their
cowboy hats and sang:
I'VE no" and Away We Co."
We now have as many sea
shells as we have rocks. We
picked up some more while we
dunked our feet in Lake Lena
here while on an overnight
stop.
Soothing His Nerves
Clearwater, Fla. The
beautiful white caps on low
tide surf are dancing in the
late afternoon sunlight and
I'm dunking my fourth-degree
fiat feet into the Gulf of
Mexico.
Greg and Chuck are wading
in the water and Martha is
riding a rubber raft about 25
feet offshore.
The beach is shallow here
and the water a brilliant blue.
Soothes your nerves.
Brother, do those nerves
need soothing.
For 1t was earlier today that:
/. The car radiator boiled
over.
. A hottie of medicine car-