The Celeste students were asked to research local history since Celeste is celebrating its one hundredth birthday this year.

Bill Eason, freshman student and son of Mr. and Mrs. Larry (Paula Gibson) Eason interview Mrs. Myrtle Stapleton who shared with him the following information.

"I was a graduate of Celeste in 1926. Most of the time, I rode a horse or walked to school since we lived 21/2 miles south of Celeste. The horse we rode was named "Button" and we kept him in a barn across from the school, which was owned by the McCraws (corner of Cockrell and Seventh streets), during classes.

Mr. E. H. Watson was the superintendent until the last year I was in school. A few mornings when I got to school, it was so cold Mr. Watson would take me in his office and thaw me out before I went to class.

Then there were eleven grades. At recess and noon, we usually played games. Most of the time, it was jacks. If we did not finish the game by the time the bell rang, we continued the next day. We played on the sidewalks. At recess, we lined up in a single file to march into class.

On prom night, our party was at a large house across from the school. We played games that were written down on paper.

When I was in school there were four doctors, two drugstores, a hardware store, three gins, a picture show, skating rink, and several grocery stores. The funeral director was in the Henslee Hardware Store. When I was young, they went to the home and embalmed the corpse. They kept the corpse in the home and people sat up with the corpse at night until the funeral."

(May 28, 1987, The Wolfe City Mirror)

Submitted by Sarah Swindell

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