The Stroll

[Shirlv]

Memories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEGMm0Dgsbs

[Redetotry]

Thank you Shirl! That did bring back a lot of memories. I noticed how well the guys were dressed. I wonder if any teen age boys have a suit now!? The girls didn't seem to be as dressed up though as the boys. I lived where there were a lot of roadhouses. One especially was rather well known. Tina Turner sang there once that I know of and several jazz musicians which I didn't care much for, came up from New Orleans. The college kids particularly went there on week ends and of course we usually included it in our tour of the good places to dance. It was about the only one where they checked ID"s and of course we all had a
fake one. All you had to do was show them something, mine was passed down from a friend when she got a new drivers license and she had black hair...mine is brown!

[IrishIroamed]

Even tho the Stroll was a bit before my time, all my Italian cousins knew it and we always did the Stroll at family parties. They were a musical bunch. Uncle played the drums and his wife sang in a Dixie land jazz band. Anther aunt played the
Spoons. The younger generation also kept the musical side going. Cousin on drums, his son on sax. I miss the old days.

[Bethers]

That would have been my sister's generation. But I remember because I always watched American bandstand. I turned 5 in late 1957! I do remember it being done at weddings several years later but people danced how they wanted when their turn to go down the center.

Fun.

[Shirlv]

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Oops

[Shirlv]

Cheryl, sounds like you had a fun family. My husbands family were German so lots of beer going around. Uncle Ray thought he sang like Frank Sinatra so after a few beers he would sing and everyone groaned. The sax was my favorite musical instrument. Earl Bostic was very popular in the 59’s. Sorry I keep bring up the past but with the pandemic I haven’t had any new experiences or fun. How sad.

[Redetotry]

Shirl I really like what you post. The Stroll brought back a lot of good memories for me. I haven't tried to see if I can still do it yet though. I was just getting into dancing again when the plague closed everything down.

[JudyJB]

That was definitely my generation! I was 13 in 1957 and in 8th grade in high school because our district had just started constructing a junior high school. Found this on the mashed potatoes, but the dance does not look quite right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azTqxyBK32Y Here is another one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51eJ3-h86JQ I was too shy to do much dancing because people might look at me!

I do remember the twist, however. A catholic friend of mine in my freshman year of college asked me and another friend who was very Jewish to spent the weekend with her because her parents were going out of town and she did not want to be alone. I was NOT catholic, so I did not know what was permissible or not. Anyway, my friend took both of us to a dance in downtown Detroit, except she did not bother to tell us it was organized by the Catholic church, nor did she clue us in on what dances or behavior was allowed! So here we were in a big room with a bunch of priests and nuns in full regalia. They kept chasing us around when they saw us doing the twist, so we ended up hiding in a big coat closet with some other kids doing the twist!! It was a fun night, but quite an experience, to say the least, since neither I nor our Jewish friend was used to having priests and nuns following us all night to make sure we behaved!

Our Jewish friend kept us in stitches telling us about the weekend that her parents left her alone. She and three friends left Friday night and drove all night to New York City and then got back in time for Sunday night when her parents returned. Fun memories.

And somewhere I have a couple of articles published in our local newspaper in the opinion area about how terrible it was to have kids being allowed to wear jeans and do immoral "fast dances" at public high school dances. That would have been around 1958. If I can ever find it, I will post it because it was pretty funny.

Anyone remember any other 50s or 60s dances??

[Shirlv]

Judy, you wicked girl, twisting in the cloakroom.

[retiredhappy]

Boy did that bring back memories and wasn't it nice to see the girls with clothes on and nothing hanging out. I don't understand how parents let some of their kids out of the house wearing (or not wearing) next to nothing. Saw a young girl at Walmart the other day with shorts so short her butt cheeks were hanging out and a crop top so short you could see the bottom of her breasts. So glad I'm not raising teenagers now days. And P.S., my mother was appalled by the twist but we kids loved it.

[Acadianmom]

When I was in college the only place to dance was the student union. There was a dance every Wednesday from 6:00 to 8:00. We were old enough to buy alcohol but there were no bars in town. There was a drive through liquor store that is still in business. My roommate and I would buy a big bottle of beer and share it. That was about all we could afford. Do they even make beer in big bottles anymore? I took a dance class for one of my PE's. We learned square dancing, the tango and the waltz. The only one I remember is the waltz. One year there was an Old South Ball so we got to dress up. I don't remember what the occasion was. While I was in college Natchitoches had it's 250 year celebration. The dance might have been for that.

Martha

[Redetotry]

Judyjb Loved the stories, especially the one where your friend went to New York City and back!!! Dancing in the coat closet

I'm loving all these memories!!

While watching the videos you posted I found these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOLOeaYjRME. Top best rock and roll classic 50’s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gn_huzHvQ0. 50-60’s Rock & Roll Music no dancing but 1:45 minutes music

[dpf]

I remember "The Stroll"! My parents used to chaperone Saturday night teen sock hops at the Legion on occasion . I was probably 7 or 8 and if Grandma was busy they had to take me along. I thought it was a big deal to get to go along and was the envy of all my friends. I remember wondering why some of the girls wore their cardigan sweaters backwards. Remember the fad of having the buttons in the back? I don't remember the boys dressing up as much as the girls, but I do remember the heel clips on their shoes and their hair in duck tails.

[JudyJB]

The clothing brings me back. Do you remember saddle shoes? Or penny loafers? I was in high school from 1957-1961 and saddle shoes were slightly out of style by then, but we did wear penny loafers. Those were also the days when skirts got a lot shorter. In the early 50s, skirts were about 4" below your knees. It seemed each year they got an inch shorter until when I was a senior, they were at just at the bottom of your knees—no knees showing. I remember constantly shortening skirts. They were what are called "pencil skirts" today or the felt "poodle skirts," so named because a lot of them had poodles on them.

In my senior year, I remember going out shopping with my cousin (who was a year younger than me) and my best girlfriend, and each buying a wool kilt that came to just above our knees, but we wore them with knee-high socks! In addition, they were fake-wrapped and had a big pin in the front that looked like it held the skirt together, so the front came slightly apart, but only by a couple of inches, not enough to really show any leg! So, we all wore our shockingly short kilts to school together so we would not get thrown out of school. (I had an advantage in that I was an excellent student and my dad was on the school board, so that was some protection.) Anyway, at the last reunion, a couple of classmates said they still remembered the day we wore skirts that were above our knees! How shocking to actually show your kneecaps!!

[IrishIroamed]

I wore saddle shoes, penny loafers and shoes that looked like bowling shoes in high school. Also wore the wool skirts with the pin and winter wool shorts with knee high socks. . But they were all retro looks because I was in high school in the 70s.