John Hildreth graduated from Bruce High School in 1977. He wasn’t your typical graduate though.
He spoke about 10 times as fast as everyone else, with an accent not native to Mississippi, and didn’t grow up eating fried chicken, drinking Coca-Cola, and going to high school football games on Friday nights.
Born and raised in New Zealand, a little bit of hard work and a whole lot of Jesus brought Hildreth to Bruce.
His mother, a lecturer in English at a New Zealand university, encouraged Hildreth to apply for a term abroad. He did.
Hildreth when he arrived at Bruce High in 1977.
He applied through two different organizations, one of them the Rotary Club, to study abroad for a year, expanding his chances of acceptance. He was accepted into both and now had a decision to make.
It was between South Africa or Bruce. Due to civil unrest and other concerns in South Africa, Hildreth’s family sent him to small town U.S.A.
“I thank God that they did,” Hildreth said.
In January of 1977, he boarded the plane, flew through Los Angeles, and eventually landed in Memphis.
“Back then there was no internet, there was no Facebook, there was no Google,” Hildreth said. “You just wrote letters, and I actually hadn’t even spoken to anybody in Bruce. We maybe got a letter from the Rotary Club, but when I look back now it’s like golly.”
Everything was different. The driving was different, the food was different, the schools were different. Up to this point, Hildreth had never used a microwave.
Being raised in a farming area, Hildreth hadn’t been exposed to as large of a social setting as it is here.
“I really enjoyed being the new guy,” he laughed. “Everybody wanted to talk to me. I suppose it was my ego back then, but I just enjoy talking to people. You don’t even have to open your mouth, and people want to talk to you.”
During his original stay, he lived with five different families– Euris and Ed Quillen, Charlotte and Jimmy Henry, Fred and Carolyn Beckett, Robbie Ray and Cliff Easley Jr., and Bob and Nell Logan.
Shared conversations and stories is how Hildreth began to get a real sense of the people and how to communicate differences while still finding many similarities.
After graduation, Hildreth spent summer days hanging out and swimming in the pool. When late August came around, he began classes at the University of Mississippi. His semester there was unconventional in the way that he commuted to class every day or would stay on a friend’s dorm room floor whenever he could.
“It was very informal,” he said. “I wasn’t there for any other reason, but to fill in the time and get some experience at how it works.”
Between classes, Hildreth brought a little piece of home to Ole Miss. He played on the university’s inaugural rugby team.
“There was wind around that they wanted to get (a rugby team) going and they were like, ‘Man, there’s this guy from New Zealand who actually knows the rules. Yeah, let’s go,” Hildreth said.
Hildreth and about five or six other Bruce natives joined the team that year laying the foundation for a team that is still active today.
“We got whooped but it was great,” he said. “That’s why you play a sport. You play to win, but you play with your mates as well. We had a great time.”
After a calendar year in Mississippi, Hildreth finally had to say his goodbyes. He packed his bags and headed back to New Zealand.
Coming home for him was a new slew of culture shock. He had to readjust to how things were.
“I went home and had this really strong Southern drawl,” Hildreth laughed. “My parents were like ‘golly.’ I wanted to know where the Coke machine was, and I wanted to know where the ice maker was.”
Within a month of returning home, Hildreth got back into college life and earned a four-year agricultural science degree from Massey University. Eventually, he settled back down in his hometown of Helensville.
“I live in the house I was born in,” Hildreth said. “Everybody thinks that’s a little bit weird, and it probably is a little bit weird, but it was my grandfather’s farm and then my dad had it then I bought it. It is a generational thing.”
Hildreth now lives with his wife Michelle and has two children, both in their early twenties. He visits Bruce as often as he can. Since his first return visit in 1984, he’s been back maybe a dozen times.
Initially, he was nervous to return. He said he had made great friends, but it was hard to stay in touch and people tend to move on to other things. But whenever he does manage to visit, it’s like things have never changed.
“I just drop back into it and it’s amazing,” Hildreth said. “Everybody’s so friendly, and we all just sort of pick back up.”
He says God had a big part in putting him in Bruce and he is thankful for the connections he has made and continues to keep.
“My application was here,” Hildreth said holding out one hand. “And the Bruce Rotary Club was here,” he said holding out the other hand. He clapped his hands together. “I know people who have been on exchanges where they say it was a good year but then they never go back. It’s that real connection.”
Hildreth admits that as time goes on his connection to Bruce may weaken when time and people continue on, but his connection to Calhoun County and certainly the families of Bruce is a lifetime commitment. He plans to visit as often as he can and hopes people return the favor and come visit him in New Zealand.
“I really feel a real deep connection to Bruce and it’s really hard to explain,” Hildreth said. “I feel so blessed that I had that.”