Old Home Week Planned In Massachusetts-This Day In Norwood History-March 14, 1902

By act of the Legislature the week beginning with the last Sunday in July in each year is set apart as Old Home Week throughout Massachusetts.

Norwood has many out-of-town natives, while not a few of her former sons and daughters are scattered abroad over the land and in other lands. As the bill did not pass the legislature in time for many of the towns to take action on the matter at the annual town meetings, it may be necessary this year for selectmen and town authorities to take action unofficially in arranging for the celebration. It has been suggested that the small sum necessary for such celebration can be raised by subscription among business men and public-spirited citizens generally. No town should let the occasion go by without some observance.

It is of the first importance that local action should be taken without delay. Now is the time for a committee to collect the postoffice addresses of the absent sons and daughters of your town in every part of the country, open communication with them, notifying them that you intend to have an Old Home Week, perhaps asking them for any suggestions they may wish to offer as to the program, and inviting them to make their summer vacation plan so as to join in the reunion. Such an invitation is certain to induce many persons to revisit their old home who may have been neglecting so to do for years, while in some instances it will be the means of bringing families among you for the entire summer. Coming once and receiving a hearty welcome, old ties will be resumed and interest in the welfare of the community will be kindled and permanent benefits be derived by the town. Visitors will wish to become subscribers to the local paper, while some who can afford it will buy and improve the old homesteads, and the still more prosperous will become benefactors of the public institutions of their native towns.

The loyalty of New Englanders to New England, wherever their lots may be cast, is proverbial, and New England owes much to the generosity of her people who have found homes and fortunes in other parts of the country. Any measure calculated to strengthen this bond is earnestly to be desired, and it was for this purpose that Old Home Week has been established here and in adjoining States.

(All articles originally published in the Norwood Messenger)