Something About Massachusetts State Physical Fitness Week

We can work it out.

I thumbed through The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt (1983) recently, looking for a reference to something else, and my eyes fell upon an early page discussing Massachusetts State Physical Fitness Week.

Because of the stress in Johnny's life, Professor Childermass suggests Johnny take a vacation, reminding his young friend of the state’s week-long celebration of fitness:

Between October 1 and 7 the kids in all the grade schools in the state would go to lectures and slide shows and movies and panel discussions on physical fitness instead of attending classes. In Duston Heights there would be special events like relay races and baseball and tug-of-wars every day out on the athletic field.

As part of the events, a group of Duston Heights-area Boy Scouts taking a bus trip up into the White Mountains, to a scout camp near Lake Chocorua for a week of “hiking along mountain trails and singing around campfires and having a grand time.”

Childermass suggests Johnny take a vacation from worrying about his grandmother’s brain tumor and the disappearance of his father in the Korean War and attend camp, too. After all, Dixon is already a member of Troop 112.

Eh. I've always found the concept of taking a week off from school in the name of physical fitness – much less, to attend Boy Scout camp - confusing or far-fetched.

Let’s start with the name. I can’t find any reference to a Massachusetts State Physical Fitness Week outside the book, so it seems either something Bellairs created or it's now going by a different name all these decades later. However, because some of the content in the in the book was likely inspired by Bellairs’s home state of Michigan (Troop 112 of Marshall, the cereal industry of Battle Creek, etc.) I wonder if Bellairs grew up with Michigan State Physical Fitness Week. A week-long, state-run health and fitness initiative by itself seems plausible, wherever it is.

But what about Scouts heading to week-long camp in the October? Wouldn’t Scouts likely visit week-long camp during the summer, when there were volunteers actually onsite to ensure the camp was up and running to expectations? The camp counselor later says because the trip was so last minute not all the amenities have been turned on – such as phone service. Would the camp have been used for previous fitness week trips and been expected to be open? Did the hiking and camping translate to school credit? And if all they’re doing is hiking then couldn’t school-based teachers or other city leaders take the boys on day-long walks around town? Maybe take in some local history while they’re at it, too.

And what did the boys do who didn’t go to Scout camp and stayed at home in Duston Heights or wherever? How many boys were not in a Scout troop? Did adult members of the community participate, too, or was this mainly geared toward children?  And what pray tell did the girls do in all this?

I realize much of this is not a big deal, but I always thought Bellairs was pushing things here plot-wise, even when I was younger.