A couple of days ago, my post was on ancestry and the fun of exploring people of the past. I’m blessed that my mother told me stories of her childhood that gave us a glimpse at the life of a young girl in rural Oklahoma in the early twentieth century. As another school year is about to start here, I thought it might be fun to take a peek at a small, country school on its last day of the term, around 1918. These are my mother’s words about a memorable last day of school excursion:
One year, for the last day of school the children talked the teacher into taking us to the cave. We would take a picnic lunch and go no farther than the entrance to the cave. Parents would object to lanterns that would be needed to go beyond the entrance.
So, we set out, running, hollering. laughing, and talking. It was the last day of school and the summer ahead would be so much fun. The teacher gave orders that we all stay close together when we got near the cave, but some of the rowdy boys ran ahead and climbed the hill above the cave. The girls and smaller children climbed more slowly.
We climbed up to the mouth of the cave and were standing around trying to get up the courage to venture inside when one of the boys on the hill above the cave dislodged a big rock and it was going over the top of the cave. It would have struck one of the big girls on the head, but she threw her arm up in time and the rock scraped her arm from her shoulder to her wrist.
That ended our excursion. We immediately headed for home, eating our lunches on the way. A sad ending for a last day of school picnic.
—Susie Latty Day
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