The Nov 09, 1959 issue of Time Magazine featured a short article titled HANKER FOR HUNKER?. Within the reader was treated to a description of what many people today, and I hope people then, consider to be one of the most pointless fads in American history. As the article tells us "hunkerin" is simply squatting on the balls of your feet for extended periods of time. It is claimed that this practice was started by students at the University of Arkansas who experienced a "chair shortage" in their frat house. The idea for them to "hunker" was inspired by their "Ozark daddies" who would squat and whittle at crossroads stores, it is claimed...
At this point you may be skeptical of the legitimacy of this practice. There is really nothing in the original Time Magazine article to take seriously, which very well may be the point, but that did not stop other publications from covering the growing fad. The Nov 23, 1959 issue of Life Magazine featured an article titled HANKERIN' FOR HUNKERIN'. Over the span of 4 pages the reader is treated to a description of hunkerin', another Ozarks backstory, and even pictures of young people engaged in the "sport of sociable squatting".
Today hunkerin' will often show up on internet lists featuring bizarre or quirky cultural activities of the past. Featured alongside other strange cultural phenomena such as flag pole sitting and phone-booth stuffing the idea that kids in the fifties were squatting for fun doesn't sound all that unbelievable. Where the organic origins of hunkerin' begin to fall apart however, are when we consider what merits it possesses as a fad. Where flag pole sitting and phone-booth stuffing are somewhat whimsical, bizarre, and sociably entertaining; hunkerin' is basically a more difficult way to sit around with your friends. Hunkerin' is not whimsical or bizarre as an individual act, but it is comical when presented as a legitimate past-time. In other words, the fad only becomes entertaining when you convince other people that it is real.
A number of individuals who have written about hunkerin' have noted that nearly every fact about it can be traced back to the Time and Life Magazine articles. Interestingly the Time article even states that the University of Arkansas added the fad "last week", which suggest a very dubiously short period of time from its inception to print in a major publication. To me the implication had always been that someone at Time created or took part in the creation of hunkerin' as a tongue in cheek commentary on cultural fads, that was until I discovered that there is at least one article that predates the Time article by over a week.
A full transcript of the article from The Courier News out of Blytheville, AR is below. Described within is a hunkerin' college rivalry between the challengers of Memphis State University, and the all-star team of UA. The article even references a picture that was published, in what I am assuming was a local Memphis newspaper, showing the hunkerin' challengers. This throws my original theory that hunkerin' was created by someone associated with Time out the window. It appears based on this article that the practice was known prior to publication in any national publication. I would still contend that the fad was created as an inside joke or exercise in satire, but the question still remains; who created it? I have so far been unable to find the picture of the Memphis students mentioned in the Courier article. Without further documentation or a first hand account it is unlikely that the true origins of this fad will be learned. I think what we can say based on the Courier editorial is that someone, or a group of someones, in either Memphis, TN or Fayetteville, AR created a past-time so dull and pointless that it has endured as a story for nearly 60 years. Whether or not their motivation was satire, perpetuating a hoax, or simply boredom remains a mystery.
From The Courier News(Blytheville, Arkansas Oct 30, 1959.
Editor's Note
"The time has come for a little authoritative reporting on hunkerin'. Seat of hunkerin' is supposedly the University of Arkansas where one fraternity says it can out-hunker another fraternity.
Memphis State University students got their picture in the paper by offering to out-hunker an all-star hunkerin' team from UA. And so a new college fad is off the ground without the benefit of any real planning or study.
The U of A types point to their native regions - the Ozarks - as the fount of hunkerin' lore. The ancient rite, they say, is practiced to this day in the rustic hill country.
For the benefit of you who do not know, hunkerin' is squatting. . . only much more basic. You squat and then make yourself as comfortable as possible. The result is that your . . . er . . . uh . . . derriere is but an inch or two off the ground, your knees practically bracket your jaw. This is hunkerin'.
WW II veterans of the Pacific and CBI theaters will remember hunkerin' as the Cook Squat. Hunkerin' is done where ever there us a paucity of chairs. No doubt, cave men were remarkable hunkerers.
In fact, save for some artificial contrivance, the only possible way a man can rest without lying down is to hunker. It is without a doubt the way man was meant to repose when not walking, standing, or sleeping.
Hunkerin' then, doubtless is healthful and probably deserves the attention of some group or other as the basis of a health fad...though maybe then Zen Buddhists are hunkers."
