In 1939 a Life magazine headline reported that "On Sadie Hawkins Day, Girls Chase Boys in 201 Colleges".

It's 2008.

Gals, what are your plans?

Guys, what will you do to 'disappear' on the 29th? Or, will you be out 'looking' (to take advantage of the opportunities...)?

Wes - What are YOUR plans??? :notme:

Leap Year - 29 Days in February

Leap_year

Sadie_Hawkins_Day

Sadie Hawkins Day, an American folk event (http://www.lil-abner.com/sadiehawk.html)

Sadie Hawkins was the daughter of one of Dogpatch's earliest settlers, Hekzebiah Hawkins. When she reached the age of 35, still a spinster, her father in desperation called together the eligible bachelors of Dogpatch and declared that day to be Sadie Hawkins Day and that "when ah fires [my gun] all o' yo' kin start a-runnin! When ah fires agin - after givin' yo' a fair start - Sadie starts a runnin'. Th' one she ketches'll be her husband."

The town spinsters decided that this was such a good idea, they made Sadie Hawkins Day an annual event, much to the chagrin of Dogpatch bachelors everywhere. (See leap year for discussion of a similar tradition of "allowing" women to propose marriage on February 29.)

Sadie Hawkins Day was first mentioned in the November 13, 1937 Li'l Abner strip with the race actually taking place between the November 19th and November 30th strips. It would prove to be an annual event in the strip.

When my wife and went out to dinner recently, we found ourselves in the middle of about 100 high school kids. The girls were really dressed up, the guys made one concession - they wore ties!

During the course of dinner, we learned the local high school has a "turnabout" day EVERY year (not just leap year) and these girls had asked the guys for a date, booked the reservations, bought their own corsages, and, in most cases, had arranged the transportation- either driving their own cars or doubling up with other girls who drove.

We were VERY impressed with how well behaved they all were.

"Wes - What are YOUR plans??? :notme: "


Nice evasion Wes !!!!!

Now, the answer to the question is??????

Dave

Well . . .
I thought my wife was buying dinner since she asked me to go out.
I thought it was a sure thing when we ran into the turnabout crowd.
When the bill came, however, the waitress gave it to me. I asked my wife if she was going to pay.

She replied, "With what? I didn't bring any credit cards or cash. You always pay!"

Added in edit:
In fairness, she did pay in advance for the concert we went to later that evening.

Never heard of this, but in the unlikely chance a good girl comes along and asks me out to dinner I'd take the offer. :cool:

Dimitri

Dimitri, it's probably an "age and US culture" issue - though US papers mention it fairly regularly, especially in leap years. I remember reading Al Capp's Dogpatch comics - a regular in the Sunday comics section of the local newspaper while growing up and being introduced to it then. (I'm roughly Marc's age - mid 50's.)

When I was in prime dating age, I never really ran across anyone who followed/celebrated in the activities of Sadie Hawkin's Day.

I do miss Al Capp's sarcastic take on life in the US, of course, I also miss Walt Kelly's take on the US political scene via his comic Pogo as well. Somehow their humor strikes me a bit better than that of a lot of the political comics of today.

During the course of dinner, we learned the local high school has a "turnabout" day EVERY year (not just leap year) and these girls had asked the guys for a date, booked the reservations, bought their own corsages, and, in most cases, had arranged the transportation

Our HS (in SE Wisconsin) did the same thing - the winter formal was called the Redskins dance because that was the name of the girls organization in HS.

Don't know if they're still doing it.