I grew up in Blackstone, Massachusetts, and attended high school from 1983 to 1989.
Grades 7-12 were all packed into the same building.
It wasn’t always easy to be 12 years old at a school where my fellow students had mustaches and full-time jobs, and laws forbidding hazing had yet to be passed.
Little did I know that 74 years earlier, Blackstone was similar to Bomont in the movie “Footloose,” which was in theaters during my first year at Blackstone Millville High School.
On September 29, 1909, the Providence Journal ran this article. Blackstone is on the Massachusetts and Rhode Island border, so the Providence Journal was apparently covering Blackstone news at the turn of the century.
I love this bit of nostalgia so much.
I love phrases like:
“…they would be allowed to hold only two public entertainments during the year…”
“Entertainments.” I’ve never seen this word used as a plural noun, but I love it.
“…neither of these entertainments could be a dancing party.”
Even the phrase “dancing party” sounds so strange.
You can have a party or a dance, but a dancing party?
Use that phrase today, and you might be the only person at your dancing party.
And that last, great sentence:
“Dancing has been restricted because it seems possible to provide other forms of entertainment which would agree more with the aims and ideas of a high school education.”
It’s “Footloose” light. Dancing is okay, but only once per year, because more often than that might hinder learning.
I can’t help but wonder what Principal Masterson was like. I couldn’t find any information on the man. With the exception of his position on dancing, he, like so many others, appears lost to history.
Thanks to Thomas Gagnon of theBlackstone High School and BMR Reminiscent Group for this bit of nostalgic joy.
