Sunshine School Memories- The Origin of Pass-A-Grille’s Fish Broil

The first Pass-a-Grille Fish Broil was in 1931 to raise funds for the Sunshine School- here is the school’s story.

“I had always wanted to meet Helen McLeod. The opportunity came at a party Louise Bell gave for her son, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Johnson. Bill had attended Sunshine School when Helen was principal. He is one of the many former students whose careers she has followed with pride.” — DW

Sunshine School was unique because it was a public school with all the advantages of a private school and because it was a community center with interested and interesting patrons.

The school motto, “A Sound Mind in a Sound Body,” was carried out in a health and citizenship program taught in an outdoor atmosphere and in the sunshine. Every day, students in all grades received forty-five minutes of instruction in corrective exercises, first aid and swimming at the beach, the latter with a qualified Red Cross instructor. Among the outstanding beach instructors were Virginia Marsh Pendley, ‘Pop’ Allen, a British drill sergeant, and Tom Braun, a handsome young man who was a wonderful influence on all the children. These instructors were paid by the Parents Club with money raised at the Fish Broil.

In addition to the beach program, many classes were held outdoors in the three thatched shelters built on school grounds. Here, at specially built tables with portable blackboards, all received individual instruction on their special assignments.

Another feature at Sunshine was the good citizenship program, a system of student government. The whole school was called a State of Happiness, with each room being a town, Workville, Healthville, Friendlyville and Contentmentville. In November, using regular ballot forms, the children elected a governor, mayors and town commissioners.

Sunshine School had a most attractive auditorium. A six-foot panel of murals was painted on the four walls by the father of a student. Another parent donated a movie projector, and movies were shown for parents and children before there were any movie theaters on the Beach. My husband, Norman McLeod, ran the projector for the school. He also built the outdoor shelters, made all the stage scenery for the many programs, built all the library shelves in all the ‘towns,’ and installed foot and overhead lights for the stage.

In order to encourage students to eat all their food, the cafeteria was named ‘The Filling Station.’ Foods were referred to as ‘Gas’ and drinks were ‘Oil.’ All tables were supervised by teachers, and after lunch there was a story hour and a rest period.

Outstanding teachers over the years were Elizabeth White Haslam, Evelyn Reichert, Viola Roth, Ida Smith Kaufhold, Jane Ray, Evelyn Hughes, and Grace Elsten. Eunice Banks worked the kitchen from 1934 to 1975.

The Sunshine School song was written by Philip Goodwill, a student whose parents wintered in Pass-a-Grille. (His mother, Harriet Goodwill, was a Vina Del Mar resident.) I found the words to the song on a crumpled scrap of paper under Philip’s desk. Howard Fassett, a local resident, set the words to music. Tragically, Philip was killed in an accident two years later. Some years later, Sue Mary Roberts, a sixth grader, revised some of the words.

Excerpt from Pass-a-Grille, a Patchwork Collection of Memories (Available at the Gulf Beaches Historical Museum)
By Helen Mcleod, Sunshine School Principal 1935-1954

Editor’s Note: The Sunshine School song was last sung by the student body of the school at the closing day ceremony on June 6, 1975. They also sang, at the end of the program, the Sunshine’s version of “Tie a Yellow Ribbon.” The students had tied yellow ribbons on old palm trees all up and down Pass-a-Grille, but the school bus never stopped again at Sunshine School. Some memories are preserved in a scrapbook given to the St. Petersburg Beach Library. Harriet Goodwill, Philip’s mother, shared some of her old memories and pictures with some of us one day and lent us copies of the little school newspaper dated 1937. The paper was called “Sunshine Flash” and Philip was the editor. Also on the staff were Bill Badgnall, Alden Whiteside, George Hardy, Christine Sherman, Renwick Knox, and Bill Bryan. On one of the yellowing pages we found this poem by Philip:

            I like to live in Pass-a-Grille
            A place were all is fine
            I hate to leave of Pass-a-Grille
            And so this ends my rhyme.]

LYRICS:

Verse 1
When I attend the Sunshine School to practice
there the golden rule, And learn to spell and
read and write, I have to strive with all my might.
So here’s to where we work and play: Long live the Sunshine School! Hooray!

Verse 2
We’re all one State- a good one too! And we have
towns, although they’re few. We work in Workville
most all the day, But beach-time come and then we play.
So here’s to where we work and play: Long live the Sunshine School! Hooray!

Verse 3
For games, in Healthville, we play ball- It helps me
grow both big and tall; Contentmentville, our
city great, Makes all good laws and make them straight.
So here’s to where we work and play: Long live the Sunshine School! Hooray!

Date: October 2013