By John J. Galluzzo

February 29 is Sadie Hawkins Day, right?

Wrong. Although it has mistakenly been described as such through the years – for understandable reasons – February 29 is not Sadie Hawkins Day.

First, the basics. Who is, or was, Sadie Hawkins? You’d have to be of a particular vintage to remember when she made her debut in Dogpatch, the hometown of the Lil’ Abner comic strip, in 1937. Described as “the homeliest gal in all them hills,” Mayor Hezkebiah Hawkins’ daughter Sadie had reached 35 years old and had no prospects for marriage. Worried Sadie might remain a spinster all her life, the mayor declared a special Sadie Hawkins Day that would feature a foot race. If Sadie caught any one of the town’s eligible bachelors, they would be married.

It touched off a bit of a revolution. As the event became a regular feature of the Dogpatch calendar for the next 40 years, college campuses across the country set up Sadie Hawkins races. Even small towns like Hull got in on the fun.

Well, maybe Hull did.

As to the date, the traditional celebration took place on November 13, though Lil’ Abner’s creator, Al Capp, set the date firmly as November 26 in his last comic strip on November 5, 1977. What of February 29? Leap Day had been celebrated in Ireland as “Bachelor’s Day” since the 1800s. On that day, women were allowed to ask men to marry them. Yes, allowed. We’ve come a long way, baby.

During World War II, Hull-Nantasket Times editor Herb Gordon, before leaving for military duty, proposed a Sadie Hawkins Day-style race for the community. He predicted that the “Nantasket Casanova,” Johnny Kirraine, would be the biggest target of the day. Kirraine, though he had eyes for a local schoolteacher, was not yet ready to settle down. “Despite his Barrymore manner, genial John is a wily old bird, and the chances are that he will be discreetly in seclusion at some distant point when Sadie Hawkins Day rolls around…” (The Hull-Nantasket Times, February 19, 1942).

Without a Leap Day that year, and apparently not willing to wait for November, Gordon set the date as March 15, 1942. Charley Welch agreed to be the official starter. The single women of the town were to line up at Monument Square and after giving the men of the town two hours to hide, the chase would be on.

Gordon said he put his money on the bachelors. Did the event ever really happen? We may never know. One man, at least, took it seriously.

Two weeks after the planned date for the event, Herb Gordon received a postcard, written by Johnny Kirraine, from Florida.

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