Do you remember when Johnny Maestro & Brooklyn Bridge sang “Sixteen Candles,” and “The Angels Listened In?” Or when Lesley Gore insisted “It’s My Party and I’ll Cry if I Want To?”
How about when Chubby Checker demonstrated The Twist on “American Bandstand?”
Do you know how to do The Stroll? What about The Limbo?
It doesn’t matter if you’re too young to remember the first appearance of those songs and dances.
Mary McGinnis of Mountain Top estimates she was “born seven years too late” to experience the heyday of ‘50s and early ‘60s music, but that’s not stopping her from helping her husband Steve McGinnis organize the “Memories of Warmland Sock Hop,” set for 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8 at the Broadway Tavern on Route 309 in Mountain Top.
“I love this music. It just makes you happy,” she said on Wednesday afternoon, moments before posing with two friends in the outfits, complete with colorful poodle skirts, that they intend to wear to the Sock Hop, which will benefit the Mountain Top Historical Society.
The bobby soxers of the ‘50s often sported ankle-high bobby socks with saddle shoes, and McGinnis and her friend Anne Wambold, also of Mountain Top, will emulate that look with white sneakers painted to look like saddle shoes.
“I should do that, too,” another Historical Society member, Kathleen Button, of Mountain Top, said, glancing down at her plain white walking shoes.
With or without ’50s attire, the public is invited to join the members and friends of the Mountain Top Historical Society at the Sock Hop, which is likely to include a Limbo pole as well as a “spotlight” that will single out a dancing couple to win a prize.
Tickets are $20 per person, which includes hamburgers and hot dogs. People also are welcome to bring snacks if they’d like to, and there will be a cash bar.
Tickets are available at the Farmers Market that is held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays at Crestwood High School. Or you may call Steve McGinnis at 570-474-6942.
Proceeds of the fund-raiser will benefit Mountain Top Historical Society projects, including the expenses of refurbishing the Red Caboose that the society has displayed on Route 309.
The Historical Society also is looking for a permanent home.
