9:47 AM EST, February 29th, 2008
According to Wikipedia, Sadie Hawkins Day is an invention of the Li'l Abner comic strip. The day is supposedly named after "the homeliest gal in all them hills" and marks an event in which the unmarried women of Dogpatch could pursue any man they pleased. If they caught that man before the sun went down, that unfortunate fellow was forced to marry his captor. Seems like they should at least wait until Stockholm syndrome to set in. My own personal familiarity comes from two places other than the comic strip since most people stopped reading Li'l Abner sometime around the invention of the horseless carriage. In high school, Sadie Hawkins Dances were the blessing of any overly shy but still somewhat popular boy. A date could easily be had without the sweaty palms and awkward stammering. Of course, Sadie Hawkins Dances were also the bane of every geek, nerd, and spaz because it only confirmed their status as social pariah. The second source of my acquaintance with the day comes from the under appreciated Broadway musical version of the Li'l Abner cannon. Embedded below is a clip of one of the musical numbers from the movie production of that same musical. See Hollywood recycling of ideas is nothing new. I would have preferred to include this YouTube clip but it does not allow embedding. The best number is Jubliation T. Cornpone but YouTube let's me down there as well. Good corny stuff.
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