Who knows why, out of the blue, a memory visits your head?

The other day, the memory of the annual Sadie Hawkins Dance dropped by.  This dance happened every mid-October at my high school.

I was in high school just after the dinosaurs went extinct.  At that time, it was improper for a girl to ask a boy out for a date.  So, the responsibility for dating was up to boys.

(If a boy did ask a girl out, it was considered improper to kiss her goodnight on the first date.  A kiss goodnight was okay after the second or third date, but not on the first.  Look at the fun the dinosaurs missed out on.)

There was one time of the year that it was okay for a girl to ask a boy out — the Sadie Hawkins Dance.

Sadie Hawkins was a character created by Al Capp (1909 – 1979) for his comic strip, Li’l Abner.  The YouTube link to Today I Found Out gives a detailed account of how a comic-strip character evolved into an annual dance and an event day.

Every year I wished; every year I hoped; and, every year I prayed that some girl — any girl! — would ask me to the Sadie Hawkins dance.  And every year, it never happened.  For my entire time at high school, I was never asked to go to the Sadie Hawkins Dance.  And this caused major psychological damage which I am still being treated for to this day.

“Really?  How so?”

After I graduated from high school, I was never able to do a crossword puzzle.

“Huh?  How is not being asked to the Sadie Hawkins Dance connected to crossword puzzles?”

I don’t know.  My therapist has yet to figure that out.