By: Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
By: Lori Bledsoe
The Alpine Sun
Pulling out the poodle skirts and the comfiest quirkiest socks and have a fun time! The second annual Sock Hop at AES took place on Friday, March 24. This informal dance event for usually for teenagers gained popularity in the 1950’s, featuring popular dance music. Girls donned wool circular skirts that flared while dancing. Many skirts had a ‘poodle’ decoration, hence the name “poodle skirt” They paired them with their best sweater sets and maybe a pearl necklace. The hair do of the day was normally a pony tail, but flip ups and page boys with bows were also often seen.
Boys on the other hand, could wear their best James Dean blue jeans, white t-shirt and hairstyles that were almost as extravagant and the girls. They could wear a pompadour that was pleated in the back with two combs, like Elvis and James Dean, that often held a more comical moniker such as “a duck’s tail”, or they could wear their hair in a style called an ‘elephant’s trunk’, which was purposefully messy with the front combed up and back. There was also the flattop, a short-cropped style that was evenly cropped on the top to create a level line of hair. Many men however opted for a clean cut parted comb-over that was much easier to maintain.
Sock hops became a thing as early as the mid-1940’s, and were held in the high school gymnasiums, but by 1950, they really caught on. The term ‘sock-hop’ came about because the dancers were required to remove their hard soled shoes to protect the varnished floor of the gym. Usually there was a live band, but vinyl records were used as well by disc jockeys and the dancing began!
This Sock Hop was organized by the students at Alpine Elementary School, and supervised by Jen Sacks, to fundraise for ‘The Leader in Me’ program. The funds raised will provide for the materials that help with the program to groom the ‘inner’ leaders in the students.
The dance was held in the auditorium and outside. The students went all out for this event, many of the girls put on their pink jackets, reminiscent of the Pink Ladies of the movie Grease. One boy looked great as Elvis. There were prizes for doing the best hand-jive dance, the hula hoop, costumes, and bubblegum blowing. Someone donated a classic car cutout for the photobooth, and everyone had fun!
