A former teacher returns elementary school diary to Fort St. John man

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C – A Fort St. John man received a blast from the past when his former elementary teacher sent him his Grade 6 school diary.

Austin Hutton couldn’t describe the feeling of getting his diary in the mail last week from his former teacher, Hugh Brittain.

“I get chills; I had goosebumps,” says Hutton.

The diary was written in 1988 when Hutton was a student at Havelock Elementary School in Saint John, New Brunswick, which was demolished in 2016.

“I knew we did a diary, but I had no idea what was in it. Not a single clue. Then I read it and said, ‘well, look at you, you little stud’.”

The glimpse into the life of 12-year-old Hutton was labelled: “MY DIARY. Top Secret. Keep out.”

Hutton, who moved to Fort St. John in 2014, took a trip through his childhood accompanied by his wife and son, AJ.

“One of the biggest things that they mentioned was how neat my printing was.”

The green ink-covered pages focused on Hutton’s money-making efforts by mowing lawns to buy a new bike, playing sports, and girls, especially Cindy, his former crush.

In the 1970s and 80s, Brittain would have his students write a diary for a week as a creative writing exercise. Brittain never read the diaries but held on to them until the students graduated.

Most of the diaries were returned, but some were packed in a memorabilia box from his 34-year teaching career when he retired in 1995. After some of the diaries were handed out at a school reunion, there were 26 left, one of which being Huttons.

“I’ve kept them all these years, and I didn’t know what to do with them, I didn’t like to dispose of them and so I thought I’d give it one more try,”78-year-old Brittain told CNN. “After keeping some for 43 years, I figured it was time to be sure they got delivered.”

Last month, Brittain posted in a local Facebook group for help reuniting the 26 diaries with their writers.

“It was my mother that actually found the post on Facebook, and she said, ‘you might want to look into this, and so I did,” says Hutton.

Hutton and Brittain exchanged brief Facebook messages back and forth before being sent the diary and another piece of nostalgia, a police boat.

“He even sent me a picture that I drew for him. I forgot all about it completely. No idea, but he saved it. ”

Hutton had nothing but good memories of his time being taught by Brittain.

“He was fantastic. He’s an amazing teacher,” remembers Hutton. “He is one of the few handfuls that you’ll remember. You go through a lot of teachers in life, and he sticks out very much.”

Brittain told CNN he still has seven diaries to return.