What is a hoompa?

NAHANT – The Nahant Veterans Association is bringing back the hoompa for the annual HOOMPA Nickel Road Race for Labor Day Weekend, the first time it?s been held in over 25 years.Proceeds from the five-mile race will raise funds for the association, but the question remains: “What is a hoompa?”?It depends on who you ask,” said Vova Aleksanyan, a clerk at Seaside Variety on Nahant Road, and rightly so. Any Nahant townie worth his or her years spent on the island will tell you it?s a word from “back in the day,” a word so iconic and symbolic of Nahant culture that it?s been slapped on a bumper sticker. Ask six of them what it means, however, and you?ll be lucky to get the same definition.After hearing the “old-timers” talk at his counter for seven years, Aleksanyan will tell you it was a warning call from one troublemaker kid to another in the 1950s and 1960s when a certain police officer was in the area. Nahant Police Lieutenant Tom Hutton traces its origins to two Department of Public Works employees, but doesn?t know why. A customer in Richland Convenience Store said it was a jest at a town wharf worker who had a habit of clearing his throat.Resident Rob Scanlan, the man who produced the bright orange HOOMPA stickers, said when it comes to defining hoompa, “If you have to ask, you wouldn?t understand.” Scanlan went as far as to write a one-page definition for the term (searchable on the town?s website, nahant.org), where he describes it as a way to chide others for being reprimanded or caught red-handed – what modern kids might replace with “Oh, snap!”Race organizer Jon Lazar has three different meanings for the word, and no idea which is the closest to correct. Native American money, a Greek immigrant?s cry, or the way a lobsterman would pull his catch into the boat.Lazar said if anything, the indecision among the word?s definition points to the town?s division, which he feels is the reason for bringing the race back.?Right now the town of Nahant needs a little hoompa,” he said. “People are isolated in their own little world and there are too many complaints about everything. Hoompa was a time of great community support, and we want to bring it back.”Once an annual event that drew 600 to 700 runners, the HOOMPA Nickel Road Race hasn?t been held since 1986. Lazar said the race will be “tough to resurrect,” estimating 150 participants for this year?s race on Aug. 31.The race is Saturday at 5 p.m., but the event kicks off Friday at 6 p.m. with a Pre-Race Carbo-Up Night at the Nahant Life Saving Station, where pasta and a little Scanlon-defined hoompa will be served as the veterans plan to reveal long-lost video footage of Selectman Rich Lombard running the HOOMPA Nickel.?It?s going to be a treat,” he said.For more information about the HOOMPA Nickel Road Race, go to www.hoompanickel.com. For more information about the word hoompa, ask your local townie, or go to www.nahant.org and search “hoompa.”