Sock hops and Be Bops

As promised, here is the excerpt from my upcoming book, "Growing up Doughnut" This part of Chapter 15 deals with lunch time at John Greer Junior High School. Sock hops were a time when we relaxed. Things like that don't happen anymore as education has changed for the worse. Test scores are down? Because teachers are boxed in, kids are stressed to the point where they turn education off. But, in this era, kids were allowed to have some fun during the day.... I hope you like this... let me know what you think.

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Sock hops were essential for social structure and engineering. There were barely any students in the school who did not attend and either dance or sit in the bleachers and talk while listening to the evils of Rock and Roll. When we entered the gym, we had to go to the bleachers with our shoes on, or remove them and gain access to the gym floor for dancing. It was during this time that new alliances were formed, new loves found and lost. The lights were left on, so any dancing was done in full view of others, and could be a somewhat enlightening or embarrassing experience depending on the level of co-ordination and rhythmic ability one possessed. Girls peeled sweaters and revealed body parts that I never knew they had; and shook in places, which to this time in my life, were a mystery to me. I am certain that these sock hops contributed to my academic demise, causing me a great deal of consternation for the next few years as I discovered more of the opposite sex. The sounds of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Monkees emanated through the air; I held girls in my arms for a fleeting moment and dreamed of things that I had no business thinking about as Johnny Rivers sang “Poor Side of Town,” and Jimmy Ruffin’s “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted” became my theme song as I strived to find that certain someone. Every girl was “the one” and I became good friends with many and “like a brother” to all. Mrs. Mitchell and her Bell Club opened up new avenues to me that had been barricaded, and as junior high progressed, and I grew comfortable in that adolescent form, it was this organization that helped me have confidence to try other organizations and discover new interests.


Doughnut