Southern Massachusetts on the Rhode Island line: It's your typical small town. Everybody knows everybody and their business. The local meet up, the hangout spots. You name it, we have it. So if you grew up in Swansea, Massachusetts I am sure you'll know what I'm talking about.
1. "Oh, it's in the Grove" is a normal sentence to say.
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It's an unspoken rule, you don't actually say your rival school's town name. You may have spent a bunch of time there with friends and played rec soccer there growing up. BUT, unfortunately you just do not say their name. Nothing against the people, it's just a rivalry.
2. We all know the Grove's Dunkin' is the best Dunkin'.
This isn't even a question, the workers, the service, the food, it is simply the best Dunkin' you're going to find. I'm such a loyal customer that I can't even order from the Dunkin' on the other side of town.
3. It's normal to see every high school student's car in the town parked at Target on a Friday or Saturday night.
"Wanna go to Chipotle?" "Yeah sure I can meet you at Target and we can go." There's a concert you're going to with your friends? Carpool from target. Thanksgiving day game and dont want to deal with parking? Park at target and walk over. Thank you God for the Target parking lot, you've saved me lots of gas money.
4. Case Volleyball wins...a lot.
To have been such a huge part of this program and been on three section final teams, where two made it to the state championship in my four years was truly a blessing. It's a part of our culture, we play to win because we love the game. We breed it into our players before they're even in high school. Case volleyball wins not because of talent, because thats taken care of. Case volleyball wins because they have more heart than any other team you will find.
5. Christine Stanton is the local celebrity, and also the most respected woman in town.
She started the legacy that Case Volleyball has to this day. She created such a strong program within the high school that is soon spread to the middle school when Denise Levesque took over and now the elementary schools under Michaela Gonclaves care. She's over come a major brain surgery while still managing to be superintendent. Everyone in town knows who she is because she has simply done more than anybody else could hope for for the town of Swansea.
6. The day the Ice Cream Barn opens is basically a national holiday.
You wait all winter for a Khalua Brownie and S'mores sunday with hot fudge and whipped cream and the day you can finally go and get one is more exciting than Christmas. They certainly give you bang for your buck with a small being the size of Somerset Creamery's large.
7. "You're from the school that has the yellow gym walls, right?"
Anybody outside of the area always assumes we were a private school. Understandably, every other school on Earth is named after their town, and we are named after a person, but still. It's always the first question people ask after asking where you went to high school.
8. Durfee's graduating class was the size of your entire school's population.
Unfortunately, my graduating class barely reached 150 students and the school population was 542. Durfee's 2015 graduating class alone had more than that. But I mean hey, atleast we are a close knit community, who knows each others business... thats good, right??
9. There's enough baseball/softball fields for two towns.
Softball runs the 6-18 year old girls in Swansea. You start with instructional league and go all the way through 18U travel teams, all playing at the same fields. Hoyle school complex has six fields along with Milford Park's five for little league. Brown Elementary has a softball field and Case High has a baseball field. That's only the beginning. Ball Fields own all of Swansea's recreation area, but it's worth it.
