If you attended pre-school in Central Eleuthera, anytime during the three decades between 1966 and 1997, there is a high probability that you were taught by veteran pre-school proprietress, Mrs. Ann Adair.
Mrs. Adair, died peacefully on March 23rd, 2015 at the age of 78.
The Eleutheran had profiled the veteran beloved teacher in May of 2011, and that minimally edited profile is posted below:
The Burrows family beaming with smiles at the cutting of the ribbon (by eldest daughter, Mrs. Ann Adair – center), officially opening Edwin’s Turtle Lake Marine Reserve in December of 2014.
PROFILE: MRS ANN ADAIR October 1936 – March 2015
As the owner of Ann’s Pre-school and Daycare Center for more than thirty years, Mrs. Adair has directly impacted the lives of hundreds of Eleutherans.
Born on October 30 in 1936 to parents Edwin Vernal Burrows and Marion Gertrude Burrows, Mrs. Adair, who celebrated her 75th birthday in 2011, grew up in the company of nine sisters and four brothers. Soft spoken, and just a bit shy, she took time out to reminisce with us about her life in Eleuthera these past three score and fifteen years.
Tell us a little bit about what it was like growing up here in Governor’s Harbour when you were a little girl?
“I was the eldest. Mommy worked as a cook, and Poppy as a farmer and a fisherman, so I had to make sure that my brothers and sisters had breakfast in the morning, and got ready for school on time. We were an extended family – my grandmother was around all the time and her Aunt was there and her son, so we always had family around, not living there, but they would stay there until night, then go to their separate homes. My grandmother stayed sometimes, but she had her own house.” Reliving the memories of the 1940’s, Mrs. Adair described, how it was her responsibility to ensure the younger siblings went to Sunday school and church on time. “And I had to cook” she added. “I had to cook at an early age. I was probably about ten or eleven. I don’t know how it tasted (she laughed), but …”
This early chore developed into a passion and like her mommy, she too wanted to become a cook, but, she recalled, “Dad talked me out of that.”
“Before Mommy got married, she was a cook for the Methodist Ministers because she was a Methodist, then after she got married to Poppy, she cooked for the Anglican Priest. She cooked at Buccaneer House as well for a long time. She was a very good cook!”
Other passions… the mind of a child.
“I tell you what. I like to read. So any chance I got, I would read. And around about ten or eleven, around that age I started to read ‘true stories’ and ‘ebony’ – I read all of those. But the funny thing about it was that when I started to read them at that age I didn’t understand what ‘Cont.’ meant – ‘til all of a sudden one day I saw ‘cont. on page 17’, and I turned to page 17 and said to myself ‘oh, that’s what happened’. Before that I use to wonder what happened to the rest of the story (chuckling about her youthful naiveté). But I used to read anything I could get my hands on.”
“Also, sewing, hand stitching, embroidery and I went to learn how to sew dresses. Mommy, even though there were all of us, she always sent me somewhere to learn something – I didn’t learn crocheting though – I learned how to sew and I could tat as well – that’s a lost art now, not too many people can do it. I made handkerchiefs and doilies. I learned how to knit too. Nowadays the kids don’t like to do that. Several times I’ve asked some of the girls to come and they get tired so quick. They have too many distractions today, like the computer and the ipad and the cell phone. Back then, to pass the time, we had to learn to do.”
“In 1941, when I first went to school, I was five and they had a Mr. George Thompson who was Principal. I can remember my first day in school – I had a hat on and had a little basket, I guess my luncheon was in that. I remember that, going up to the teacher’s desk and him asking me my name – that was Mr. Thompson you know. Poppy used to teach me at home as well. He had a blackboard, and I used to be so happy when he’d go fishing or what, because as long as he was home, he had me sitting down looking at the blackboard trying to learn my letters and my 1, 2, 3’s. (Maybe that’s where I got the idea of having a pre-school). Then I’d say, ‘Mommy, could I go out to play?”, and Mommy would say yes (smiling).
A Royal Visit – Hot Tea & Sugar
It was such a pleasure to speak with Mrs. Adair, who smiled throughout sharing her warm memories and creating scenes of a much earlier time…
She recalled Princess Margaret, visiting Eleuthera- Being hosted at a reception at the Rock Sound Club and then in Governor’s Harbour, where a young Ann, had to give the address for Governor Ranfurly (Governor of the Bahamas 1953-56).
“I gave my speech in front of a podium on the basketball court. The Principal then, Mr. Harvey Bethel, gave the address, but I gave the one for the Governor.
“I’ll tell you a bit of a joke. When I said the speech for the Governor, the Commissioner at the time was a Mr. Darville. I had to recite it in front of Commissioner Darville every morning. So in this speech it had where Queen Elizabeth had been just made Queen a little while back (Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation was June 2, 1953) , so when I went there – the phrase Elizabethan era – which is pronounced ‘Elizabeethan’ – I pronounced it ‘Elizabethan’ and I had to go over and over it until I got it as ‘Elizabeethan’.
So before I said the speech, a lady who used to live across from where your Grandpa, Sidney Burrows Sr. lived, a lady called Ms. Fyfe. Well, I was telling her how nervous I was, so she said – you drink some hot tea and put a lot of sugar in it, no cream, and drink that. That will calm your nerves. I did that and I guess just knowing she said that, calmed my nerves.”
With her melodious laugh Mrs. Adair chuckled as she shared another light moment after that momentous occasion during her youth, saying, “With my speech, your grandpa, Uncle Sid, said – you did good, you spoke some Bahamian, some American and some English.”
Mrs. Adair continued, describing her early education, “Your uncles Bill Burrows and Leige Burrows were in my class, I have a picture with them. But, a lot of my pictures got damaged in Hurricane Floyd.
“The school (Governor’s Harbour Primary School) was a one room building. We went to class 1, 2 and 3, then on to grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Now most kids left school at age 14, but we couldn’t dare leave school at 14, with Poppy. We had to go to school until…, so most of us were 16 or 17. Right after that, I became a pupil teacher, so I must have been about 16 or 17, because you had to be a monitor for a few years you know, just helping and things like that.
“I used to teach grade 1 and 2 – and you had to teach every subject. And when I was a monitor I used to get ten shillings and sixpence a month – that was like $1.50, then after I became a pupil teacher I used to get 7 pounds I think it was. That was a lot of money then back in the early 50’s. I was a pupil teacher for 2 years. Whenever the Head teacher went away, he used to leave me in charge, can you imagine, 13, 14 and 15 year olds – in charge of all those big students, threatening to beat me up… His wife Mrs. Major, she used to teach class 1, 2 and 3, so when I would go to her and say, Mrs. Major , so and so wouldn’t do what I say, she would say, Chile, Jade – that’s what she used to call her husband – he leave you in charge. So I would say, oh my, no help from there. So I had to make do, and some of them were older than I was. But anyway, it was good. I guess I was used to having responsibility, being the eldest in my family. One time they wanted me to be the acting principal for the school in Savannah Sound, they didn’t have any teachers, but Poppy was strict you know.
Family Life and Career.”
Mrs. Adair was 19 when she married her husband Rudy Adair (deceased), an American working on the Navy Base. As a young couple they spent time living in Wyoming and Long Island, New York, before Mrs. Adair returned to Eleuthera. After being married for 16 years, she was widowed. The union was blessed with four children, Juanita, Marion, Wayne and Camilla.
She returned to Governor’s Harbour in 1965 and opened her pre-school operation ‘Ann’s Pre-school and Daycare Center’ in 1966 at the Anglican Parish Hall, with a little help from dear friends.
She shared her experience, saying, “They had no pre-school here, and you know when you teach kids at an early age it stays with them. At that age most kids are very quick to learn.”
Mrs. Enid Morris the wife of the Anglican Priest in 1965, who was herself a pre-school teacher from Canada, helped Mrs. Adair set it up and gave her tips on how to do it.
She shared, “I was always involved with teaching, so I had a good idea and they had courses and workshops in Nassau that I attended.
“Even though I had taught before, it was a whole different experience teaching with the smaller kids when I started, but I always had a couple of girls to help and some of my family members, when they come on vacation, they would help.
“We went along very well until they were building the Governor’s Harbour High School and needed the Parish Hall to house the older children, so I had to vacate, and brought it [the pre-school] into my home around 1975.
“The Parish Hall was a bigger space, but I managed. I had desks on the porch really – so this was more of a school than a house. I also had bunk beds in the rooms, so after lunch, the smaller kids would nap in there.
“I used to have a lot of kids back in the early days, because with the Navy Base there, I had the American kids, Canadian kids and children from different settlements – from Hatchet Bay to Palmetto Point.”
After the Base opened their own pre-school the numbers were smaller, but Mrs. Adair recalled taking these smaller groups of 15 or so on picnics every summer, bus tours to Rock Sound and to the beach – “That used to be something. Everybody wanted to go into the sea and everyone wanted to go out and didn’t want to come inside – that used to be a time you know. But I always used to carry the girls and some of the parents would go you know. Clement Cooper would take us every year. Every Friday, we’d walk the beach and pick up shells and walk in the water, I guess you would call it a nature walk now. There used to be a lot of shells there, and you know the kids would pick up all the broken shells – those were the prettiest ones to them you know (she said with a reminiscent smile). Sometimes I would have a police or nurse talk with them as well.
”Retirement… “time to let the younger kids take over”
After 31 years, Mrs. Adair retired in 1997.
“It was time for me. Dee Sands had started her school, and she had helped me for a long time. She got started right here. Others opened also, so I said it was time to let the younger kids take over. Nowadays if people ask if I’m still keeping children, I say, no way, and I wonder how I did that all those years.”
She recalled how she went out with a splash, “In June 1997 when I retired, they held a banquet for me, then I went on a cruise and visited Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Martin, Dominica, Barbados and Martinique.”
In her latter years, Mrs. Adair took pleasure in whipping up her delicious mango chutney for special friends, attending church regularly, bible study group, visiting with the sick and shut ins with her sister, Evangelist Shirley Burrows, and getting together socially with friends at the Haynes Library for tea.
Caption (photo right): L-R – Ann’s daughter, Camilla Adair with her mother, Mrs. Ann Adair, following a special ceremony at St. Patrick’s Anglican church, where she was honoured for her many years serving as a pre-school teacher.