THE HOKEY-POKEY, THE SHIMMY-SHE-WOBBLE AND OTHER SINS

by Randy Reynolds

I was terrified when my first grade teacher, Miss Lokey called me to the front of the class with a group of my fellow first-graders (in Thomson, Georgia) and announced that we were going to do a new dance: the Hokey-Pokey.

I raised my hand and said, "No, ma'am, I can't dance."

"I'll teach you," said big old Miss Lokey.

I can still remember how violently my heart throbbed as I protested, "I don't want to because dancing is a sin."

"This kind of dancing is okay," she said. "God allows the Hokey-Pokey."

I learned the Hokey-Pokey that day, trembling all the way, more than half expecting hell to open up and swallow me. That evening I confessed to Mom and Dad that I had danced the Hokey-Pokey, quickly adding that God had told Miss Lokey that it was all right. (My first experience with God sending messages through someone other than my dad, the preacher.)

My mom said, "It's all right, honey. I don't think God really objects to the Hokey-Pokey."

Dad said, "It's not like doing the Shimmy-She-Wobble with another man's wife."

My first-grade heart had no designs on anybody's wife, but I never forgot how exotic that Shimmy-She-Wobble sounded and I always wanted to see some woman do it. I've never seen a reference to it in an encyclopedia or in the newspapers of that era (the 1950's) although the papers covered and condemned everything related to rock'n'roll. I suspect my daddy may have made up that dance just to evoke the image of something nasty on the dance floor to preach against. (He preached against Elvis, too, and told us kids we had to choose between Elvis and Jesus and time was running out... but that's another story, explored more fully in THE ELVIS SYNDROME which will soon be available.)

Finding out that one dance wasn't as bad as another in God's eyes was the first time I realized that the teachings of our church were not absolute; they were subject to change.

Next came movies.

Miss Lokey said, "All right, boys and go-wee-ulls"--(this was South Georgia and she turned girls into a three-syllable word)--"...boys and go-wee-ulls, we are going to see a movie about polio."

My hand shot up.

"Yes, Randy?"

"I can't watch movies."

"Why not?"

"Because it's a sin."

"Polio movies are okay," said Miss Lokey. "God said it's all right to watch polio movies. He wants you to know why we have to take those old polio shots."

I was nothing if not gullible. If God had told Miss Lokey that polio movies were okay, I would go ahead and watch it with the rest of the class. But it confused me a little. My church said No Dancing, but the Hokey-Pokey was okay. It said No Movies, but polio movies were fine.

I was worried about these exceptions and others that came up later: our preachers preached against Television then changed their minds. They preached against women wearing rings, but made exceptions for wedding rings and engagement rings. The next thing I knew even class rings were legalized. Talk about depravity!

Women cutting their hair was a sin, women in jeans or shorts or sleeveless blouses was a sin, wearing makeup was a sin...then all those things changed and they weren't sins anymore. It made me wonder whether the church was right the first time...or were they right to change?

It was a sin for people to go to worldly places of amusement like ballgames, fairs, bowling alleys, skating rinks, concerts, school events where there'd be dancing and restaurants where beer was served. The only thing left for teenage couples to do on a date night, other than go to church or sit in the living room with her parents, was to go park by the river and "watch the submarine races."

That was a sin, too, but I figured it would get overturned someday like all the others and I wanted to be ahead of the curve.


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