Remembering ‘record hop’ days

For four decades, the name “Jocko” meant one thing in the greater Berlin area: it was time to dance.

Born in 1933, Francis “Jocko” Graye grew up during segregation, in a time when the color of your skin dictated what schools, business and shops you could go into. Until the 1960s, even Ocean City was closed to many outside of three designated “colored excursion days” after the summer season.

Within those segregated areas, however, music became a unifying force in the black community, and Graye knew he wanted to be a part of it. In 1955, he was discharged from the United States Army. He remembers buying a turntable and a small one-tube amplifier that fit in the trunk of his car.

“I couldn’t learn how to play no instrument, but I always loved music. One thing I could do was play records,” he said.

Two shops he was allowed into were Uncle Ned’s Bargain Fair in Berlin and Watson’s Smoke House in Salisbury, where he shopped exclusively for records. At the time, each cost between 25 and 30 cents.

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