BA History 101: Bellwood Confidentials
Gossip was a focus of the Hylite in 1940.
The 1940’s Hylite just had a special section just for gossip from around in the school. It goes from teachers with boyfriends to what couples do after prom.
There are questions like “Why did Mr. Dinges bring a girl to prom?” said one entry.
Student dating lives were a big focus because a lot of things can go wrong in a relationship and it can make a good story. “Bill G. and Jessie Emma W. seem to be hitting it off quite well lately. How about it, Bill?” read one gossip column entry.
“Did Blanche and Harold have a good time at prom? Well we’ll say they did, and afterwards too.”
This column probably made a lot of people mad and upset, but in small towns everyone will know as soon as someone opens their mouth anyway, so they had the Bellwood-Antis school newspaper do it for them. Back then they didn’t have social media, so their resort was The Hylite, where they could write down all the gossip and not get yelled at.
Now social media is the answer to all the gossip. You can post a picture and a little rant about someone and users can fire back. You can go on any social media account and see gossip.
Don’t you think there is a little too much gossip on social media?
