Hi! My name is Julie Brennan and I taught at Nahunta Elementary School for two years when I first started teaching. Now, I’m getting ready to retire after 26 years of teaching. I was also a stay at home on for 15 years during the middle of my teaching career. As I get ready to retire, I look on my experience at Nahunta with VERY fond memories.
I’ve got a story to tell. This is just a rough draft, but I could edit it and include a few photos if you would be interested in printing it. It certainly would mean a lot to me.
Field Trip of a Lifetime!
It was the 1981–1982 school year, my second year teaching at Nahunta Elementary, and I was kindergarten! Mr. Gerald Thrift was the principal at the time. When I first arrived at Nahunta, I was told by some of teachers that there were students there who had never seen the beach which was 45 minutes away. Being young and full of hope and idealism, I knew I had to change that. I wanted all of my students to have the opportunity to see the beach. At the time, I lived on Saint Simons Island with my roommate Helen Hahn. We lived in a house right across the street from the beach, & my friend and I were renting it at the time. It house belonged to the Thompsons, and I love to see that the house is still there when I visit Saint Simons, while all around it condos and bigs houses have been built. When Helen and I moved into the house, we drew straws to see who would get the upstairs of the house. It was the entire floor print of the house, but it was one big room and it overlooked the ocean. I got lucky and got that room. Downside… There was no heat up there, but the room was enormous! So… I had the idea that I would take five of my kindergartners at a time to spend the night with me at my house at the beach! I was young and naïve, and I didn’t even think to talk to Mr. Thrift, my principal, about my grand idea. I decided I would take five students whose parents I knew fairly well for the first trip. I actually asked six students, but one student was a little shy and did not want to go. The other five or were flying high at the idea of spending the night with their teacher at the beach! It was a brisk & beautiful blue sky day Friday afternoon the parents met me in the parking lot and we loaded up my car with five eager kindergartners, ready to go have a 24 hours of fun at the beach. As soon as we got to my house, we walked down to the beach, and before I knew it three of my students were out in the water splashing around, pants stripped off and down to their underwear. One parent had said to me, before leaving, “Whatever you do, please do not let Jeremy go into the water.” Of course, he was the first one in! At first, they were only up to their ankles, but then it was up to their knees with me calling for them to come in. I thought I was going to have to go in and get Jeremy out myself. But, I finally enticed them with our next outing… dinner at a pizza joint (near the King & Prince) that had a bar attached to it. It was family dining on one side and at 8 o’clock the other side had a bar & live music and no children were allowed on that side. There was a young waitress who waited on us, and she was very curious about what I was doing with these five young children. When she found out that I was their kindergarten teacher and that they were spending the night with me she was blown away. My five wide eyed five-year-olds & I had a great time talking, laughing, & eating our pizza, and just before we were getting ready to go… Clayton Threw Up Everywhere! I told the other students to sit right there while I went to the bathroom to get Clayton cleaned up. When I came back, there was no sign of Jeremy. I panicked a bit & shrieked, “Where’s Jeremy?!”Immediately, the other students pointed to the bar, and there was Jeremy sitting on a barstool with the young waitress. He was having a hay day eating maraschino cherries, right out of the container one at a time… no telling how many he had eaten by the time I got him. When we finally got home that night, I got everyone settled in in their sleeping bags all around the room, where I was sleeping, too. They were all worn out, and so was I, and believe it or not, we all slept well that night. They were, however, up at the crack of dawn! I had asked my friend Lindsey, who worked on the research vessel for the University of Georgia at the time if he could take us out on the UGA’s glorified shrimp boat. Unfortunately, he said no, but what came next was a close second. He said he could save a catch from the day before, and that I could bring the students down to the dock in the morning and that they could get on the boat and he could hoist the catch and release it for the students to see. However, right when we got on the boat, Lindsey had a surprise for us! He had coolers filled with Cokes, Sprites, and Candy Bars!!!
Boy, was a day off to a good start!!! Next, the five little wide eyed kindergartners gathered around in a circle while Lindsey hoisted the catch and…
Released It!!! There was a rush of exhilaration, and Jeremy ran toward the 2 baby sharks, with me screaming, “Jeremy, get away from the sharks!!!”
After our excitement on the boat, we headed back to my house on Beach Boulevard for a picnic on our deck right on the beach. The house that we were renting had an empty lot right on the beach and they had a deck out there with a picnic table. My roommate Helen had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches ready and made for us as well as chips and cookies! We all had a lovely picnic at the beach before I loaded five spirited, but a little tired, kindergartners into my car to drive them back to Nahunta. I was already thinking about the next five who I would take to the beach for their overnight field trip. However, when I showed up on Monday morning, I was met by Mr. Thrift in the parking lot, and he said to me, “Miss Brennan, I think it’s a wonderful thing that you were doing for these kindergartners, but I think it’s best that you don’t do it again.” So… My former kindergartners of my 1981-1982 class, wherever you are, please know that that field trip with you was a field trip of a lifetime for me, and I hope it was the same for you! Thanks for the memories! If any of you were out there and reading this, I would love to connect with you. I am retiring this year, and my husband and I are going to be Coast to Coast birds, spending part of our time in Savannah where I was born & raised (and where I still have a lot of family) & part of our time in Portland, Oregon where my husband and I raised our own family.
