From my desk across Broad Creek, I’m feeling nostalgic for the summers of my youth here on Hilton Head Island and remembering all the activities that we engaged in once school was out and we were left to our own imaginations to drum up some fun.
It was a time when there wasn’t much organized activity for kids here. As the island was just starting to take off as a community, the next phase of development would become what to do to keep the children busy.
Thus, the island itself was our playground. Wide open and wilderness abounding, Hilton Head invited the young and the old to explore her and to find fun. We found entertainment mostly in the swimming pool or on the beach, but even that got old day after day. All the kids in my neighborhood would ride bikes and make believe we were riding horses instead. (This was how I ended up being one of the first emergency room patients when the hospital opened its doors in 1975.) We were members of the make believe Unga Bunga Indian tribe that dwelled in the Sea Pines Forest Preserve, where we imagined that we had created the ancient Shell Ring ourselves. We pretended to be superheroes and we climbed trees.
Margaret Crenshaw and Jay Morgan crabbing off the dock in Moss Creek in the mid -1970’s
Hours and hours were spent on the Harbour Town playground, and no one ever died. The idea for the playground was well researched by Mary Fraser (wife of Sea Pines Resort developer Charles Fraser) and the very best equipment was installed for its purpose. By today’s standards, most of it would be considered dangerous. The treehouse was absolutely the coolest thing ever.
We climbed to the top of the lighthouse over and over again. Gregg Russell was our nightly entertainment. He was like a babysitter who sang songs to us. Widely revered as one of the highlights of everyone’s summer vacation, we local kids got to experience Gregg’s family-oriented show from the very beginning. His music is essentially the soundtrack of my youth. No one other person has endeared guests and locals alike to this island quite like Gregg has.
Golf and tennis were part of the original infrastructure of the island and were created to be enjoyed by retirees and residents alike. To me, golf courses served no purpose other than to provide ample space to practice gymnastics or play in rain puddles.
Frances Ferrene, PE teacher at Sea Pines Academy, spots a young gymnast in preparation for the annual circus performance in the gym.
My brother excelled in tennis, beating me 6-0, 6-0 every time, even when playing with his non-dominant hand. That was OK, though, as I excelled in gymnastics, which was promoted by Frances Ferrene, physical education teacher at Sea Pines Academy. Her love of the circus and aerial arts inspired her to create the annual circus extravaganza performed by students at the end of each year.
In my lifetime, I’ve never heard of another school that offered so much gymnastics as part of the physical education program – and I’ve certainly never heard of another school performing a circus routine at the end of the year. That was brilliant, creative, and physically challenging.
As island kids, we had fun fishing, shrimping, and crabbing. Playing in the pluff mud was lots of fun, but our mothers hated it because the stuff would stain our clothing.
When Fairway Lane Villas was being built in Sea Pines, there were ginormous hills of dirt to tumble down. In Palmetto Dunes, my friend Ria would drive us around on the newly built 11-mile-long lagoon system in her family’s little outboard motorboat. We would sing and entertain the residents who sat on their docks as we drifted by.
Speaking of docks, jumping off them into the salty waters that surround the island became my most favorite pastime. It is still my favorite island thing to do. It is imperative that you make sure the tide is high enough before you jump!
Due to the scarcity of organized activity, we created activities that required being outside. My hair wasn’t blonde – it was white, bleached by sun and chlorine. Sunscreen wasn’t a thing back then, so we were all brown as berries.
Alan Perry, current mayor of the Town of Hilton Head Island, enthusiastically played soccer for Sea Pines Academy in high school and has spent a lifetime advocating for recreational activities on our island
Perhaps the first organized sports team to exist came in the 1960s in the form of Gator Football. This kids’ league was started by Sonny Graham, Ed Crosby, Ernest Marchetti, and Maynard Barker, to name but a few. There were cheerleaders, so boys and girls participated. The first coach was Alicia Hack. This program still exists and is run by the Island Recreation Center, according to Alan Perry, Mayor of the Town of Hilton Head Island and and longtime supporter of the Rec Center.
Alan’s name is synonymous with the Rec Center as he has spent most of his entire life supporting and advocating for this entity. It’s in his blood as his father, Charles, was a huge part of the motivating force behind this movement.
The Rec Center bloomed from what was originally called the Island Youth Center. In 1980, Charles Perry, Brian and Gloria Carmines, Maynard Barker, and members of the Hilton Head Rotary Club, among others, banded together to create the island’s first place for kids to hang out.
Their dream was realized in the building that now houses the Art League Academy on Cordillo Parkway. I remember knocking on doors and asking residents to donate money to the cause of getting it built.
The first director was Joe Owen. He endeared himself to the kids and the community and is still admired today for his wide smile, sage advice, and juggling expertise.
The Youth Center, though wildly popular, didn’t quite quench the thirst of the island youths’ need for activity. So, that same group of adults who started it teamed up with the Town of Hilton Head Island and sought to expand the idea.
Students at Sea Pines Academy in the early 80s bust out of the front doors on their last day of school to enjoy summer activities.
In 1984, the nonprofit Hilton Head Island Recreation Association came into existence. The next year, the organization made an agreement with the town to serve as its recreation arm. A facility was built in its current location on Wilborn Road next door to Hilton Head Island High School. An expansion was completed in 2019, and the Rec Center is now used by 250,000 people yearly, including its programs, festivals, and fundraisers.
Essentially, the Rec Center created a lot of activity that didn’t exist, but it also consumed the fledgling and loosely formed activities that began early on. For example, there was once a swim team that practiced at the old Hilton Head Inn since it was the only Olympic-sized pool on the island. That morphed over to the Rec Center, as did the pick-up basketball game league that was started by the Interact Club at Sea Pines Academy (now Hilton Head Preparatory School). Other pick-up games on the various existing school fields eventually worked their way into the current rec program. Lacrosse, soccer, flag football, tennis, fencing – the list is endless of activities the Rec Center provides our community.
Also, of notable mention is the dynasty that the Sewell family created with their preschool, Kindred Spirits, at St. Luke’s Church in 1980. Hamp and Sis provided organized activities for kids to explore the natural environment, offering floating in the creeks, fishing, crabbing, shrimping, surfing lessons, and hunting for shark’s teeth. Their son Byron, who started leading these activities with his parents when he was 17, said it was his experience with the school that later led him to create his business, Native Son Adventures. Byron has become a local legend for having taught thousands of kids, both locals and visitors alike, how to surf. He still offers surf lessons, fishing charters, eco tours, and cruise boats.
A young Byron Sewell, owner of Native Son Adventures, catches a wave.
Aside from sports and outdoor activity, the island had arts organizations in the early days as well. Notably, the Hilton Head Community Theatre had its humble beginnings as a readers’ theatre until it moved into an old boat building warehouse owned by Robert Graves on a side road now known as Dunnagan’s Alley. The theatre started a youth program in the late 1970s. This is where I hung out and became inspired to pursue the arts as a career.
In 1985, the founders of the Hilton Head Dance School/Theatre recruited a young Karena Brock-Carlisle (principal dancer and director of the Savannah Ballet) and her husband, John, to create a dance school and that became a reality with the first 17 students in May of that year. They now teach hundreds of students.
As I reflect on my wonderful upbringing on Hilton Head Island, I realize that I am leaving out a ton of stuff. It’s impossible to mention it all in this format, so I’m sorry if I didn’t mention everything that you might remember or activities in which you were involved.
Even though the wild, carefree days of the 1970s and my youth have long since passed, I think of them every single day. All I have to do is turn my head to the wind, close my eyes, feel the sun on my face, and smell the fragrant salt air and pluff mud in the distance – and it all comes flooding back.
