But unlike any other nostalgia film, American Graffiti has been able to supply the details and step quickly beyond them—after the opening scenes, they're just assumed pieces of background. The words are there […] and the staging of a sock hop in the gym is virtually flawless, but they are part of a total experience, not the experience itself.

I had no idea then how boys wooed girls. I guessed it was a matter of joshing and shared nothings and hours of scuffing through autumn leaves and even more hours of clenches during the slow numbers at the sock hop.

“I Knew You Were Trouble,” one of the year’s great pop songs, begins like a sock-hop anthem, with jaunty guitars.

Sock hop

Meaning

Noun

Synonyms