Since 1938, American high school students have been participating in a school dance that many would consider a bit untraditional.
Originally "Sadie Hawkins Dance," the idea of the Turnabout dance began when popular cartoonist Al Capp ran a strip in which one of his main characters proposed the idea of w
omen choosing bachelors for themselves. As the story goes, Sadie Hawkins, often referred to as the "homeliest gal in all the hills," led the unmarried women of "Dogpatch" in a "chase" where they ran after bachelors and were permitted to "marry-up" with the ones they caught.
The story ran as a Li’l Abner daily strip and was printed on Nov. 13, 1937. Only a year later, the "Sadie Hawkins" concept caught on in the U.S. and Canada, and the modern "Turnabout" dance was established.
By 1952, nearly 40,000 schools were taking part in this unorthodox high school dance event, and it seemed to have stuck as a popular tradition ever since.
As generations passed and the dance evolved, the "Sadie Hawkins Dance" became known as "TWIRP" (The Woman Is Required to Pay), "TWA" (The Woman Asks), "Winter Formal", and as LHS students prefer, "Turnabout."
English teacher Ms. Kristen Kuceyeski, as a former Libertyville High School student, has experienced the traditions of turnabout.
"When I was here, everyone went to all the dances," said Kuceyeski.
She also discussed how the dances were always something to look forward to.
When she discussed about how people asked someone to the dance, her eyes lit up. She expressed, "It was the biggest deal how you asked somebody. Everyone had to one-up the other person. You didn’t just go up to someone and say, ‘Hey, do you want to go to turnabout?’ You had to do the greatest, most extravagant thing you could think of." She mentioned that it was exhausting trying to come up with an idea.
Ms. Kuceyeski was a member of the Drops of Ink staff when she was at LHS and decided to ask her boyfriend at the time to turnabout by using the newspaper. "I was the sports editor for DOI, so my friend and I created an ad that said ‘WANTED: two turnabout dates, if found, please contact Kristen Kuceyeski and Lauren Damico,’" she said.
She mentioned that, "[My boyfriend at the time] liked it and was laughing. The other kid didn’t like it at all. The other guy was kind of embarrassed because he was a bit shyer."
She explained that the Drops of Ink adviser at the time thought it was a great idea. "Originally, we really wanted to embarrass them. I know that sounds pretty mean, but we kind of just decided together and came up with it," she laughed.
She explained how she asked someone her freshman year. "I was asking someone whose family owned a pizza place. I had them send a pizza and in pepperoni they wrote ‘Turnabout?’ And then once he ate the pizza, the box said, ‘From Kristen,’" she said.
Another year, Ms. Kuceyeski asked, she had her Dad’s co-workers help her. "Because my Dad worked at school, I was really close to all the teachers, and at the time, the athletic director was Mr. Albers," she discussed.
She had the athletic director call the boy she was asking into his office. "We pretended he broke the athletic code because he cheated on a test. At first, I was apprehensive because I thought he might get a little scared. Mr. Albers assured me that it would be fine," she explained.
She said that the student she was asking was a perfect straight-A student and would never do anything wrong. "[Mr. Albers] hands him the ‘test’ and he opened it up and it said ‘Will you go to Turnabout with me... Kristen?’" she shared. She explained that he found her in the hall later and was shaking because he was scared but said he would still go with her.