Sadie Hawkins 2014

Within a few days of Julianne's 16th birthday, she had put together her first official dance "ask." To Britton for the Sadie Hawkins dance in March. His answer came a week or so later....a jar full of pastel colored M&Ms along with instructions to count them. If the number was 99, the answer was no. If the number was 100, the answer was yes. There were 99 M&Ms. But lest you think this is some cruel joke, Julianne had an inkling that not all was as it seemed. So she was unsurprised, but delighted when the doorbell rang about 20 minutes later and on the front porch dressed in a suit was Britton....holding a white rose with the final M&M tucked inside its petals. "Oh Mom," she swooned. "I feel like I'm on an episode of 'The Bachelor!'" (And this is saying something seeing as 'The Bachelor' has been one of her favorite guilty pleasures lately.)

Rebekah had also put together an "ask" for Sadies...to Nolan, her fellow Madrigal and English class study buddy. His answer was equally fun, though no one really noticed or knew what was going on at the time even though it came in front of a huge audience....he answered her in the middle of their elaborate Madrigal Lovers Feast. (See here for more details.)

When I was in high school, Sadie Hawkins was a girls choice dance held in the fall. The girls bought matching shirts for themselves and their date, and the theme was the traditional Li'l Abner old comic book (and then Broadway musical and movie) surrounding a bunch of hillbilly characters with Sadie Hawkins chasing Li'l Abner in the hopes to get him to Marryin' Sam for a wedding. And our Sadies dance did indeed include a fake wedding with cheapy tin rings and a marriage license.

From Wikipedia:
An American folk event, Sadie Hawkins Day is a pseudo-holiday that originated in Al Capp's classic hillbilly comic strip, Li'l Abner (1934–1978). This inspired real-world Sadie Hawkins dances, where girls ask boys out.
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 her life. In desperation, he called together all the unmarried men of Dogpatch and declared it "Sadie Hawkins Day". A foot race was decreed, with Sadie in hot pursuit of the town's eligible bachelors.
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.

But Sadies at Rebekah and Julianne's high school is somewhat different. Held in the spring, it has nothing Li'l Abner about it. No fake weddings, no hillbilly theme. A different theme each year and matching shirts that could or not be tied to said theme. I don't remember what exactly the theme for Sadies was this year, just that it had something to do with space or the heavens or galaxies or something. So Rebekah's group opted to go with galaxy shirts...a popular fad.

Julianne's group went with something equally fashionably popular, though it had nothing to do with the theme....they all wore superhero shirts. Julianne and Britton sported Captain America tees.

All in all, Sadies is a fun, casual sort of evening. And though personally I think its more fun to keep the Sadie Hawkins dance tied to its traditional roots....whatever. A good time was had by all.