Recreation
While the leisure class could afford recreational activities such as attending operas or traveling throughout the north east, the working class of Holyoke found other ways to recreate for little to no money. Streets served as the center of social life in working-class neighborhoods, where laboring people congregated on street corners, stoops and in tenement doorways. The tenement house engendered particular forms of sociability. Immigrant or migrant neighbors who had not learned the American notion of privacy congregated in hallways, left their doors open to talk between apartment and used the airshaft to facilitate conversation between apartments. With very little money being spent on recreation, the playgrounds and swimming pools in Holyoke were a mecca for residents, as well as participation in local clubs, organizations and sports teams.
A majority of the young people of Holyoke were involved in the Scouts, the Holyoke Boys Club, and the YMCA.
The Girl Scouts received their Holyoke charter in 1921. Before that, Boy Scout membership was in the thousands.
The Holyoke Boys Club was founded in 1892 and patterned after an experimental club in New Haven, Connecticut. The club gave boys social, athletic and vocational activities outside of school. They paid dues and ran their own planned projects with the money. They purchased tools and machines for craft activities. A unique part of the Boys Club was that it was maintained without church backing. The Holyoke Boys Club hosted an annual Golden Gloves Boxing Tournament.
Summer camp is a great place for wholesome education, recreation and training. The YMCA, Salvation Army and Boys Club of Holyoke ran summer camps. Several church groups like Holy Cross and St. Pauls also maintained camps for youth parishioners in the summer.
In the summer of 1921, 35,000 boys and girls made use of the Ward 4 bathhouse. Due to the popularity of swimming pools such as these, the city appropriated more playgrounds and pools. In the summers, children would be found swimming at Eggers, now where I-91 is. Children would put on their bathing suits and walk out there via the railroad tracks. Playgrounds in the summer made wonderful skating rinks in the winter. The Parks and Playground Commission flooded the playgrounds and parks on December 15th each year and usually kept them frozen until February 5th. Certain streets were closed for sliding when snow was not good. Children and adults alike would skate on the canals and out near Ingleside in the winter. They would also skate at Carpenter’s Pond.
Supervised play was a common practice. Baseball teams were organized, some on Sunday (which was a violation of Massachusetts law)! For example, City Baseball League and “Dusty League” (industrial companies) were formed in 1914. Before playgrounds and other green areas were created in the city, children of working class families played in doorways or neighborhood streets. Children were inventive, playing bottle caps, kick the can and other street games. More subdued activities included paper dolls, and card games or dominos, which the children learned by watching their parents play.
