The Emma Edition: Sockhop Flashmob

Sasha, F.Scott Fitzgerald Book Club aficionado

On Saturday, I got in my time machine and turned the dial back to a sock hop in Central Park. My friend Delilah was filming a silent film and asked us all to dress-up like were from the 1950’s. It’s safe to say we were convincing, because mid-shoot, a jogger ran through saying, “GREASE LIGHTNING, YEAH MAN!!!”

The premise of the plot was that the protagonist, a teen girl, is extremely lonely, causing her to start imagining all of these couples from the 1950’s wherever she wanders. She dreams of living in their world and being one of the couples she encounters. However, *spoiler alert,* in the end of the movie, she finds a boy who loves F. Scott Fitzgerald effectively allowing her to leave her 1950's dreams behind and join a new dream filled with Fitzgerald and him. I personally think it should end with a sock hop version of a High School Musical dance number, but this is also a lovely ending.

In the video, my job was to be part of one of the couples seen in the girl's dreams. I’m wearing a red bandana skirt that was handmade by Ruby Moriarty, a vintage bandana-as-hair-tie from TIME Magazine, Repetto patent loafers, a vintage lace button-up blouse my grandma used to wear, and a denim jacket from Park City Utah that is 100% not from there (I’ve never been skiing, It’s from a thrift store in Woodstock. The same place I got my picnic basket purse). Note that Isaac is wearing Converse. Delilah REALLY wanted to stress that Converse were integral to the plot development. So I want you all to know he is in them.

These are also our “DID WE REALLY JUST GET PINNED?” faces. We did not get pinned. This was followed by a scene where my friend pulled out a switchblade and carved a heart into a tree. *~*~*vintage teen angst *~*~*.

Delilah filming the silent film with *gasp* film

The 1950’s are often criticized as an era of conformity, but post-World War II, I think many were looking for that sort of simplicity. People didn’t want to have to deal with rebellion again, and for the time it was held off (you know, before rock 'n roll, and the juvenile delinquency that came along that also characterized the era). This makes sense why fashion of the 1950’s was more conservative: pastels, poodle skirts, bobby-socks, etc. Everyone has their own era that they wish they were a part of (basically the premise of Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris) and while for me, its 1960’s San Francisco, I still find the video dreamy.

Nostalgia has a hold on everyone. So I find it interesting though that back in the 18^th Century (and perhaps even earlier), those who were nostalgic were likened to someone with a mental illness. If that was really true, our whole society would have to be “diagnosed.” Still, it’s interesting to think about how nostalgia really is a state of mind, which has certainly evolved over the past couple of centuries.