Some Observations from the Hill
by H.H. "Hub" Brown

 Am writing this from sunny St. Cloud, Florida. My sister-in-law and her daughter Diane invited me down here for two weeks and then when the weather turned bad up north they convinced me I had better stay two more weeks. My sister Lucille and sister-in-law Virginia are nearly ninety and I'm 98, so we have a great time hashing over the past. Steve, a friendly neighbor from across the street, loaned me this typewriter so that explains some of my mistakes.

 Virginia and Diane have a great location here just a great place for pets being the dead end of a one-way street. Their cat, Blackie, and another big one, Butterscotch, have a series of backyards to roam and no cars going by. Steve has a white Scotty and two cats, but he keeps them confined. This place makes me think of a poem James Whitcomb Riley wrote called Lockerbie Street. He said, "A dear little street it was, nestled away from the heat of the city and the noise of the day."

 It's hard to believe the weather reports up north when every day, almost, is bright and clear down here. I was supposed to head for home today, the 24th, but Jim and Monica convinced me that things would go on just the same if I weren't up there. Jim said, "You don't want to be slipping and sliding around in a foot-and-a-half of slush when you can be dry down there." Diane says her mother has a good memory only it's short. She gets around the best of the three of us. Luty, as we call her, and I have lost some of the dexterity of our pedal extremities, both walk with a cane. We usually eat one meal a day out. Steve takes us where we want to go.

 We have all seen most of the more sensational things in years past so don't go looking for more thrills. Some thrilling rides are right out in the open. Like a cage suspended on a bungie cord between two tall poles. That cage is shot high in the air then free falls down near the ground then back in the air. Another one has a cage on each end of a long pole which spins you around and around. Another one mounts you in a cage on a bungie cord fastened between two tall poles. Then you are shot out into space like a BB in a slingshot. I would say that none of these rides would be recommended for anyone with heart trouble. 

 The last time I was in Florida was some years ago when Pat and Fritz brought us down on the Amtrak. Hard to believe the changes since then. Read in a paper that the number of school kids gains one classroom a day . . . Well, don't want to take more than my allotted space, so will close.