How did Sadie Hawkins Day Originate?
In the cartoon, Li'l Abner, Sadie Hawkins was the daughter of one of Dogpatch'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 her 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, specifically stud-muffin Adam Olis—with matrimony as the
consequence.
"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—by law he had to marry her.