Bet you don't know where the term sock hop comes from do you? Me too, and I wondered what on earth socks had to do with hopping. I guess there might be another reason why the word sock hop is used, but I can't think of one. There is actually some great stuff about this very subject on the Internet, and if you take the time to read it, you'll find that it's quite informative.
By the way, I should add, I honestly think there are other reasons why socks got associated with hops, and NOT the kind of hop that refers to a dance either. Really, let's take a quick look at how schools came up with hopping about a school with socks on the kid's feet.
Oh man, those were the greatest times of my school year, as every Friday we got to huddle in the gym in little clutches of girls on one side and guys on the other, waiting for the DJ to start the music. Sure, there were some kids who weren't allowed to go to the dance for various reasons - likely because they didn't have proper socks, but for the main part, just about everyone was there.
Man alive that place just boomed with sound and some of the greatest hits of all times, while the floor was packed with kids having a riot. It didn't matter how the gym looked so long as there was a dance and you got to mingle with the coolest dude in the world - the captain of the basketball team, in his socks.
We had to make sure we kept that gym floor surface clean and scratch free or the school would have to redo the surface and that was expensive. That gym floor felt cold on our feet just wearing socks, but when we got dancing, they warmed up, you know hopping in our socks.
Wearing socks to dance was actually a smart idea; because we could do some pretty funky dance moves while wearing them, not to mention do flips and backslides. Isn't it great how some of these expressions get started? What a colorful history for socks, the quiet hard working tubes of various materials that we slap on our feet and expect to withstand the rigors of what we put them through. It's up to you to figure out if you believe me.
