Why Not Give A Fun Sadie Hawkins Party and At the Same Time, Help the Environment?
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009
by Fran Larson
http://www.franniesquotes.com/
When is "Sadie Hawkins Day?
(From my research, no one is clear when is the real Sadie Hawkins is
I found reference to this holiday as being celebrated on November 3, November 13, November 15 and February 29.)
When I was a little girl I remember my two older sisters would give "Daisy Mae" parties. (For those of you too young to know this, Daisy Mae and Lil Abner were in the comics every Sunday. Daisy Mae was always pursuing Lil Abner.)
Sadie Hawkins Day was first mentioned in the November 13, 1937 Li'l Abner daily strip, with the race actually taking place between November 19th and November 30th in the continuity. It would prove to be a popular annual feature in Li'l Abner, and a cultural phenomenon outside the strip. (See Schreiner, Dave; "Sadie's First Run", Li'l Abner Dailies Volume 3: 1937, Kitchen Sink Press, Princeton, WI, pg. 8.)
(Leap year is a similar tradition of "allowing" women to propose marriage on February 29, which has also become unofficially known as Sadie Hawkins Day.)
Original story
In Li'l Abner, Sadie Hawkins was the daughter of one of Dogwatch's earliest settlers, Hekzebiah Hawkins. The "homeliest gal in all them hills", she grew frantic waiting for suitors to come a-courtin'. When she reached the age of 35, still a spinster, her father was even more frantic - about Sadie living at home for the rest of his life. In desperation, he called together all the unmarried men of Dogpatch and declared it "Sadie Hawkins Day". Specifically, a foot race was decreed, with Sadie in hot pursuit of the town's eligible bachelors - and matrimony as the consequence. Now, back to my childhood story: The best of my memory is that at some point, (perhaps after everyone had socialized and eaten the party food) the girls would chase the boys all over the place. I lived in a very small country town. I can remember chasing those boys for several blocks before we caught them. (Maybe they had a head start?) Anyway, I was too young to know what happened when the poor guys were caught. I am imagining a stolen kiss with lots of giggles, as that was such an innocent time.
The following, from Wikipedia explains how the race starts in Dogpatch:
"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 husbin." The town spinsters decided that this was such a good idea; they made Sadie Hawkins Day a mandatory yearly event, much to the chagrin of Dogpatch bachelors. In the satirical spirit that drove the strip, many sequences revolved around the dreaded Sadie Hawkins Day race. If a woman caught a bachelor and dragged him, kicking and screaming, across the finish line before sundown - he had to marry her!
Why Not Turn In Aluminum Cans, Have a Sadie Hawkins Party and Help the Environment at the Same Time?
Maybe in some ways, things have not changed. You could recycle aluminum cans for a great Sadie Hawkins Party and have some extra cash. The big bonus is that you would be helping clean up the environment or as they say "going green."
Can Central tells us how much money can be made by recycling beverage cans: How does $800 million paid by the industry to recyclers for their beverage cans sound? At a 52 percent recycling rate, there are cans waiting to be recycled. Opportunity knocks to generate revenue for schools, scouts, clubs, or yourself. Consider a used beverage can worth one to two cents and how you can turn cans into cash for your community.
Another idea is to have guests bring their aluminum cans to a Sadie Hawkins celebration and give the profits to charity. Of course in this case, you would have to give your guests a fair warning of a few weeks, so they could save their cans (and also look for cans on the beaches, etc.)
Either way you celebrate, Ladies, this is your chance to grab the man of your choice. Don't get frustrated like Sadie Hawkins and "grow frantic waiting for suitors to come a-courtin'.
* Some of this information is from Wikipedia, Please note the following:
This is a Fair Use of an excerpt from November 16, 1937 Li'l Abner strip. Although this is still under copyright, inclusion here qualifies for Fair Use under US Copyright law because:
It is used for a non-commercial and hopefully educational purpose.
It is representative of the topic:
It shows the history of Sadie Hawkins Day.
It shows Sadie, her father, and her husband.
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