Leap Day (February 29) is an intercalary day inserted in a leap year. Leap Day has been associated with age-old traditions, superstitions and folklore. It is also recognized as a day of observances and celebrated as a birthday for those born on February 29.
And thanks to a comic strip, it's also known as Sadie Hawkins Day!
In the comic strip "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." A foot race was decreed, with Sadie in hot pursuit of the town's eligible bachelors - and matrimony as the consequence of being caught by her!
"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 this to be such a good idea, that they made Sadie Hawkins Day a mandatory yearly event, much to the terror 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!
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, when GeoKen was in high school, there was also a school dance every February to which the gals had to ask the guys!
But... everybody can log a geocache on Leap Day, so come on along for an enjoyable evening of geo-merriment!
Drop in to our usual meeting place located at 9278 Commercial Street in New Minas, the Boston/Italian themed restaurant where we meet every month, and sign our log book. Good old Hekzebiah Hawkins will fire the starting gun at 6:30 PM and the race will be over at 8:30 PM! Stay for some geo-fun, geo-food, geo-conversation and maybe even some geo-prizes to celebrate the occasion. Come, visit with other cachers and have a coffee, tea or soft drink, an adult beverage (but if you drink, please don't drive) or a full meal - the choice is totally yours.
There are also challenges out there to cache around the 366 day calendar -- both to log a cache found and placed on every day of the year. Assuming the weather cooperates, this will be a guaranteed "find" for you on a day that only comes once every four years! And it being an event, logging it covers both found date and placed date calendars!
(I would really appreciate your "will attend" log entry being posted here by noon on the date of the event if at all possible so that during the early afternoon I can give the restaurant an idea of how many to expect. Please don't stay away if you haven't posted, but please do realize that seating for you or your fellow geocachers could be a problem.)
A note about possible winter weather - Please check this cache listing before you leave home - I will keep an eye on the weather and post here by 4:00 PM should it be necessary to cancel the event on short notice. The weather may be very different here from where you live - I will do my best to keep you from driving into a bad situation. Obviously, too, the restaurant reserves the right to close in inclement weather and send their staff home to safety!
NEWS FLASH... Groundspeak is celebrating this leap year with not one, but two new souvenirs! The first souvenir can only be earned on Leap Day itself - February 29 - by attending a geocaching event. An event like this one! The other souvenir can be earned all weekend long (February 27-29) by getting outside and finding a geocache. (They are hinting that we will want to earn both of these new souvenirs...)
This cache owner
supports the
Association of Nova Scotia Geocaching
