Does anyone remember Sadie Hawkins?

A few days ago Julie posted about the school rules for a Sadie Hawkins dance. Mind you, I am not uninterested in the rules, but what really caught my attention was the phrase "Sadie Hawkins dance."

I texted my grandson - the family member attending the previously-mentioned dance - and asked if he knew who Sadie Hawkins is, or actually, was? Not surprisingly, he did not. After all, it has been nearly 75 years since Al Capp invented the Sadie Hawkins character, in a cartoon series that has not been published since 1977. Here's the story, from Wikipedia:

In 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 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.

"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!

Capp inked the first Sadie Hawkins event in November, 1927. In less than 2 years, Life magazine reported over 200 colleges holding Sadie Hawkins Day events. It became a woman empowering rite at high schools and college campuses, long before the modern feminist movement gained prominence. I know that there were Sadie Hawkins "events" at ACC, when my brother attended, and I went to one when I attended. Be sure  you note that these were "events," not dances, according to the traditions of our tribe.

And evidently the 75-year-old activity named after a fictitious female endures to the present day, even if no one remembers who she was.