Saturday night’s all right for sock hoppin’.
They were shake, rattle and rolling on the dance floor to the music of Jay Stevens & Friends for a sock hop as part of the Chemainus Public Market’s grand reopening Saturday. And even those who weren’t dancing enjoyed the camaraderie among the large crowd that attended and revival of a festive 1950s atmosphere.
Related story: Chemainus sock hop brings back 1950s nostalgia
“The turnout was great,” said Chemainus Public Market owner Warren Goulding. “We’ve had people saying we’ve got to do it again. We are going to do something similar to that in the future.”
Some were suggesting once a month would be great, but that might be a bit optimistic. Goulding figures four or five times a year would certainly be realistic.
“It really went over well, great exposure for the market,” he said. “We had a lot of people from out of town.”
The event filled a void in the community calendar of special events that’s heavily concentrated around Chemainus in the summer. It’s sometimes hard to get older people out during the longer evenings this time of year, but many made the trek from Lake Cowichan, Duncan, Ladysmith and surrounding areas as well as Chemainus.
“It’s a good space to do that kind of thing,” reasoned Goulding.
“I don’t think there’s anything we missed. We did everything we set out to accomplish.”
There’s already been an inquiry from a group to use the space for a fundraiser and Goulding expects he’ll receive more as the year goes on.
The Chemainus Classic Car Club members who frequent the market in the summer were made aware of the event by Jodie Greis-Phillips and made their presence felt. Club member Susan Poitras from Duncan and Tyrone Murphy of the Ukrainian Dance Club in Nanaimo won the twist contest.
They each won a chair massage tuneup from Greis-Phillips of Winning Touch Massage. They weren’t a couple so didn’t share the banana split prize from Archie’s Ice Cream Parlour and Diner.
Poitras and Greis-Phillips got Julia Barton dressed up. She wanted to dance and did exactly that.
Sock hop attendees ranged in age from eight to 88.
Greis-Phillips, who does the social media for the market, noted there’s been a “super response on Facebook. It was a hit, so more to come.”
She echoed the sentiments of everyone for all the hard work by Goulding, food phenom Julie Stevens and staff to make the event a success.