Memories of Lois Glenn

              Tea Table Chatter

By CYNTHIA and MRS. W. M. –GLENN

"Memories, memories,

Dreams of long ago.”

The opening of Rollins College ... and the tea dance on last Saturday for the new students ... started a few memories among some of the old grads ... I should imagine… so one of them told me something about her memories… and now, I am having her tell you.

 The one… is MRS. WILLIAM GLENN… attractive wife of our COLONEL W. M. GLENN… who tells me that she went to Rollins over two decades ago… that is hard to believe… when you look at Lois Sample Glenn… but, after all, she said it… and as I said… I am only telling you what she said.

 According to Mrs. Glenn, the former school at Rollins reads like a Who’s Who of Orlando today. Here are a few of them, MRS. MERLE M’ELROD, MRS. LEROY B. GILES, MRS. W. C. ESSINGTON, MRS. DONALD CHENEY and MR CHENEY, MISS MARY ROBINSON, MRS. GRAY RUSH, MISS FLORIDA HOWARD, MRS. W. W. YOTHERS, MRS. D. E. FISHBACK, MRS. B. M. ROBINSON, MRS. FLORENCE HUDSON, MRS. A. B. WHITMAN, MRS. EDNA GILES FULLER, MR. MARION IVES and MR J. M. SLEMONS… who by the way rode their bicycles to and from each day… MR. HARRY DICKSON, MR. JOSEPH GUERNSEY, MR. FRANK GUERNSEY, MR. JOE BUMBY and MR. CHARLES BUMBY… who was there long, long, ago… MISS MARY BRANHAM, MISS MAYBELLE O’NEAL, MR. ARTHUR BUTT, MRS. R. B. BROSSIER, MRS. BLANCE MALLETT and dozens of others too numerous to mention.

 Now… for the memories… from here on this is Mrs. Glenn’s story…

“This younger generation who have the idea that those girls and boys of 25 years or more ago, were living in a dull and colorless age of student life just don’t know their onions, that’s all.

“Listen to this one and see if a laugh isn’t in the offing.

Many years ago when Rollins was blessed with wooden buildings and sandspurs filled the campus lawn, a small group of students made up their minds that something should be done to really celebrate an April Fool’s Day.

“Word passed around that all the student body was to cut chapel. What could be more fun than to imagine the dignified faculty strung out in the accustomed circle of chairs on the stage staring into a mass of vacant seats!!

“So far so good. The students were all for it with the exception of a very few, who had special duties to perform, and the very few was a mere handful of six or seven. After the students had walked off campus someone thought of the bright idea of going to ‘the corner store’ and getting a lunch to take on a picnic. MR. SHEPPARD, the genial owner found by the time the college crowd had left, that the shelves had been stripped bare. A hundred Mickey Mice couldn’t have done a better job. Carrying and lugging the food away it was decided to walk (it wasn’t called hiking in those days) to the haunted house on Lake Maitland. The fact that it was a glorious day of sunshine rather than the mysteries of night didn’t daunt their carefree spirits in the least.

“After all that grand ‘spread,’ thought of returning to the afternoon session was out of the question. The few who had remained on the campus felt the call and of the impromptu picnic on the shores of Lake Maitland thru the grapevine route, and when they arrived received a great reception.

“Toward supper time hunger was again rearing its ugly head, so back to the campus they went. That night in the dining hall the teachers acted as [tho] nothing had happened, but there was a great chillness felt from the learned professors. It was apparent that a hurried faculty meeting had been called, when the students failed to appear for classes and it was decided to ignore the incident. Youth of any generation does not like to be ignored. It is so much poison to their natural idea of self-importance. Instead of a just rebuke so they might have a chance to ‘talk back’ all was quiet, all forgotten.

“Whether the beloved Mrs. Blackman (then the president’s wife) made the suggestion that the incident be totally ignored or not was never known, but she got full credit for it. If there was anything Mrs. Blackman failed to understand in ‘her children’ it was never found out, and secretly she must have smiled because she must have smiled because she was then, as she is today a charming lady with a keen sense of bygone years and those of today a charming lady with a keen sense of humor beloved by the students of bygone years and those of today as well.

“As a climax the runaways were so delighted with their behavior that a photographer was summoned to take a group picture of them. Of course, Mrs. W. W. Yothers (Ada Bumby) had her picture burned when her parents’ home went up in flames but I know that Mrs. Gray Rush (‘Lizzie’ Knox), Mrs. R. B. Brossier (Ethel Dickson), Mrs. Algee (Mary Hardaway) and other girls and boys, many of whom are far from Florida at the present, do look back upon the fun as well as the serious side of their lives at Rollins.

“I wonder if ROLLINS still locks the dining room doors against the late sleepers or longer primpers, at the breakfast hour? Nothing can give a student a gone feeling quicker than to rush up to the dining hall only to find the door bolted against them while inside the early birds gleefully get-well, whatever they get! Frequently we were late for breakfast, and throughout the year became only too well acquainted with the barred door.

“To stave off starvation we would go down to‘ the corner store’ and order ‘rat cheese’ as it was called in those days and long branch wafers (what ever became of those popular long branches?) and a chocolate milk shake. At first I couldn’t eat the cheese but a tardy friend MARGUERITE DRENNEN, (PEGGY OR MARGE to many Orlando friends), ate it with great relish, but I finally learned to like it so well that even to this day when I have apple pie, American cheese is always served with it. There is only one store on Orange Avenue that carries that old fashioned strong flavored cheese. It is aged five months before leaving the factory.

“Who remembers the painted cow? Rollins may not have had much of a ‘fatted calf’ and certainly not a golden one in those days but she did have a blue and orange one which the students called ‘gold,’ right on the porch of a boys dorm, known as Knowles Hall.

“That cow was striped from the end of her generous wide nose to the tip of her tail with bright blue and orange paint. Just what bribe was given her to stand still long enough for the artists to glorify her is a secret to this day, but was she a honey!”