Sock Hops

Does anyone remember sock hops, the informal dance held in the high school gym. Sock hops were introduced in the 1950s with early rock and roll, and acquired their name because dancers were required to remove their hard-soled shoes to protect the varnished floor of the gymnasium. Music was usually records, but sometimes there were live bands. Some students came in pairs, but most came without dates.

A sock hop could not be held without Elvis, Carl Perkins, Little Richard, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino to rock ‘n roll. Connie Francis and Pat Boone were around for slow dancing. There was “Long Tall Sally,” “Rock around the clock,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” and “Blueberry Hill” favorites of the time. Most of the dance steps were unnamed, and were simple imitations of dance steps seen on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. But there was the Limbo, dancing under a low pole, shimming lower and lower… how low can you go?

Dress was simply school clothes, but in those days school clothes were dressier than what is worn to school these days. Guys dressed in jeans and shirts or tee shirts. Girls wore mid-calf skirts with lots and lots of petticoats that looked cool swirling on the dance floor, or they wore jeans. A big fad for girls at the time was wearing their dad’s white shirts, so sometimes a group of girls would decide to dress in jeans and their father’s shirts, which, unless the girl was tall, hung down to the knees. There were a few Poodle skirts, and the jeans were usually Levis. Girls wore boy’s jeans that looked as though they had been melted and poured into them.

Guys wore regular white socks, but girls wore bobby sox, folded down three times to make a thick roll at the ankle. There were oxfords, or penny loafers of white buck. And… let us not forget about Letterman Jackets/Sweaters.

In the 1960’s, with the widespread popularity of sneakers and other types of indoors-only shoes, the practice of removing shoes was dropped and sock hop referred to any informal high school dance, but most often with shoes… unless you were wearing shoes that would scuff the floor. Often girls would remove their penny loafers to dance. Chubby Checker’s twist was always fun without shoes during the 1960’s. No more petticoats were seen, and pencil straight skirts ruled. Socks were tossed aside in favor of stockings for girls and the collegiate look for boys was sockless. Jeans were still around, but boys generally dressed in dressier pants and shirts.

I was not privy to the 1950’s scene, but I sure did enjoy the sock hops of the later 1960’s. So… hats off to the kids of the 1950’s for the inception of sock hops!