When I started to school in 1936, we went to a little one room school for eight grades. It sat upon the top of a tall sand hill located in Grant Co, OK. My dad, Orville Caywood, went to school at the very same location for more than eight years, but the school he attended was then called Florence. When the Florence school burned down, a new school was built. It was renamed Mt. View Dist # 61 for it's hill top location. Mt. View had one large room that I would estimate it to be close to 24 X 40 feet or perhaps larger. It also had two very small rooms that we called cloak rooms where we hung our coats.

The little one room school I attended in the fall of 1936 when I was five and one half years old, was named "Mt. View" for it's hilltop location. It was located in the far northwestern part of Grant Co, Oklahoma.

Each Christmas, we had special programs for the family and friends of the pupils. We had a small Rhythm band that consisted of colored sticks, bells, tambourines and one symbol. The first grade always had sticks, the next upgrade was the bells, then the triangles and lastly the tambourines. I could hardly wait to upgrade to the step above the next year. Our teacher accompanied us on the piano. We seemed to always have at least one boy who could not keep time. I have always wondered if it was done on purpose.

Our stage had a wire strung completely across the stage front. Our mother's brought white bed sheets for curtains. It seemed it took six or maybe eight. Mama delighted in the fact that her sheets were always the whitest there. I do believe it got to be a contest between the ladies. I remember mama had sheets that she kept aside just for that show. She would get upset if we tried to use them. All of her sheets were very white from her scrubbing the sheets on a board after boiling her whites, another story there.

I loved the idea that we were going to our school house at night to perform. Several in the community had ”pump up” gas lanterns. Sometimes we had to wait in the dark for those people to arrive. Mama and daddy, who were always on time, fussed that the ones with the lamps were always late. I can vividly remember the smell of them as they were being carefully lit and then burning. The domed shaped mesh that covered the burner had to be handled very carefully as it would disintegrate if anyone touched it. Those lights were so much brighter than our kerosene lamps that we had at our home.

Our teacher, Glen Yarnell, was a stickler for groomed looks at our programs. Glen's wife, Thelma, came to the school prior to a program and offered to cut every boys hair. Some really needed it too. She was kept quite busy doing that. I once remember mama fussing at Willis because he did not have his done one year. He said he wanted daddy to do it. Daddy barbered for all of the neighborhood men.

We girls had costumes made by using a white cotton underskirt which our mothers covered with row after row of gathered 2 inch wide colored crepe paper making a ruffled skirt. We always had a ruffle around the sleeve and neck opening too, I remember them scratching my tender flesh. We were as proud of those fancy dresses as any "store bought" ones. One would not dare get any moisture on them as the paper would bleed color onto the white slips.

The youngest children of the school would "speak" poems, rhymes and sing little songs. The older group had plays. After we performed we would sit with our parents and watch the older group perform. Many friends and relatives from other places came to our programs. Most people who came to see us perform said our little school had the best entertainment anywhere.