When I was in the 6th grade my school held a Sock Hop Contest. I remember I had the cutest boy as my dancing partner, Greg. He was dreamy…LOL
It was a normal day at school, we sat in class drawing hot rods and slipping them around the room when Mrs. Abernanthy turned her back. Greg, Rick, Ricky, and I all competed almost daily to see who could draw the best hot rod. I still feel like I had the most skill and I don’t remember ever getting caught passing my masterpieces around.
“R-I-N-G!” The bell went off! You’d think we’d all jump and run, we weren’t fond of Mrs. Abernanthy’s English class, but everything had to be so organized…ugh! I hated that! I wanted to run to be first in the lunch line so I could hurry up and get to the ice cream cooler; I had my $.25 ready!
This day was different in the lunchroom. A bunch of kids were around something on the wall and chattering something about a Sock Hop; I had no idea what a Sock Hop was. Then I spotted the picture on the poster. What was that the girl was wearing? Why are that boy’s pants rolled up? LOL He’s got high waters!
As I read down the poster I started to realize this wasn’t a stupid thing, it was a dance! And, a contest to boot! I loved competing…at anything! (Truth be told, I’m still very competitive to this day.) My brain started ticking, who would my partner be? Ugh! “Partners will be chosen by Teachers”! “Great! I hope I don’t get stuck with Tommy! I won’t do it! I won’t dance!”
The day came; it was time for me to find out who I would be stuck with. As it turned out each room Teach got to decide how they would assign partners and just my luck, Tommy was in Mrs. Abernanthy’s room too! Mrs. Abernanthy decided the fairest way was to put all the boy’s names in bag and have the girls draw a name out of the bag. I pulled my folded slip of paper out of the bag; I couldn’t bear to look. I just knew it was gonna be that Tommy and I would just die! He was always picking on me and chasing me. I held out as long as I could to not look at the name, but then it came my turn to tell Mrs. Abernanthy who my partner was. I couldn’t believe it when I read the name. Could this be true? Were my eyes deceiving me? Greg Gladney? What? “YES!” I had the biggest crush on Greg!
Practice was for 2 weeks in the lunchroom. Now that I think about it, this was the auditorium too. There was a stage in the back of the big room. We practiced hard; we both took competition seriously and it was the perfect excuse for a boy that had his reputation to protect and a tomboy to do the same. Oh, and the tomboy to pretend she had no interest in her partner and secretly enjoy every second spent with him; not to mention we got to pretend we thought dancing was silly all the while loving every second of it!
Credit: Seattle Municipal Archives (Flickr)
The big day came; it was Sock Hop day! My mom was great; she knew how to throw together a costume that would be perfect for a Sock Hop! The white button down blouse and the big fluffy poodle skirt. She finish my costume off with white bobby socks, white tennis shoes, and pulled my hair up into a pony tail then tied it off with the prettiest bow. I looked great!
It was hard that day to concentrate on class work. Everyone was all dressed up and anxious about the dance contest. This was an all day event. Each class had their dance off with the teacher choosing a winner, and then the winner had to wait for a final dance off the Principal would judge. Mrs. Abernanthy’s class went to the lunchroom and to my young child amazement we got to dance on the stage and we danced out hearts out. I couldn’t believe it, she never tapped on our shoulders…we were the last ones dancing! We won our room!
I secretly waited nervously all day for the final dance off. This one was serious business; the entire school would be sitting in the lunchroom watching. Finally the dance off began. When the music started some how I put my nerves away and danced proudly! I totally forgot about all those kids watching me. One by one other dancers were tapped out and then there were 2 couples left. I know this sounds like I’m embellishing but, we won! I couldn’t believe it! I was so happy, but of course…I couldn’t let anyone know I thought it was such a big deal for me to get that “stupid” trophy.
What contests did your school hold like this? Did you win?