I have been a dad for over 19 years now, and I must admit that Father's Day has usually turned out to be a big yawner. There just doesn't seem to have been a whole lot of attention paid to it. Well, I guess that was then and this is now, since today it was a wonderful day! I spent the morning with my very good friends at church. I had to the chance to go to lunch with the closest of friends and my lovely wife. My daughter called during lunch (she was hard at work at Camp Lutherhaven over on Lake Coeur d'Alene). I got to take a two hour nap. Kay and I spent a bit of quality time with our bartender Chris over at Waddell's Pub, and then we had a great dinner of grilled beef and potatoes. Kay got me a very thoughtful gift, and all in all I really enjoyed the whole day!
Speaking of our bartender...I found out this evening that the wedding that I officiated at earlier in the week involved his cousin as the groom. Chris found out from his mother that I had led the wedding ceremony and gave the message, and if he had known in advance that I was involved he would have been there...likely story!
The rain returned today, about a third of an inch, and there is more coming for tomorrow. I really hope that it doesn't interupt our morning tennis outting...we are going to have to play outside. I have worked my way out of the funk that I was in about a week ago, and the competition over the past couple of sessions has been outstanding. It is a lot of fun when we are all playing well and the quality of play is at a high level...no matter who ends up winning.
Finally...I would like to salute my dad...Erwin Albrecht of La Crosse, WI. I know that he will never read this (he and computers just don't see eye to eye), but I just wanted to say that he is my hero, and the greatest man that has ever lived...at least I think so!
I just read that Father's Day originated in Spokane, Washington. Some women, I think they said 70 years, ago got it started. Maybe you want to research that.
ReplyDelete. The first observance of Father's Day is believed to have been held on June 19, 1910 through the efforts of Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington. After listening to a church sermon at Spokane's Central Methodist Episcopal Church in 1909 about the newly recognized Mother's Day, Dodd felt strongly that fatherhood needed recognition, as well.[1] She wanted a celebration that honored fathers like her own father, William Smart, a Civil War veteran who was left to raise his family alone when his wife died giving birth to their sixth child when Sonora was 16 years old.[2]
ReplyDeleteThe following year with the assistance of Reverend Dr. Conrad Bluhm, her pastor at Old Centenary Presbyterian Church (now Knox Presbyterian Church), Sonora took the idea to the Spokane YMCA. The Spokane YMCA, along with the Ministerial Alliance, endorsed Dodd’s idea and helped it spread by celebrating the first Father’s Day in 1910. Sonora suggested her father’s birthday, June 5, be established as the day to honor all Fathers. However, the pastors wanted more time to prepare, so on June 19, 1910, young members of the YMCA went to church wearing roses: a red rose to honor a living father, and a white rose to honor a deceased one.[2] Dodd traveled through the city in a horse-drawn carriage, carrying gifts to shut-in fathers confined indoors by illness.[2]
It took many years to make the holiday official. In spite of support from the YWCA, the YMCA, and churches, Father's Day ran the risk of disappearing from the calendar.[3] Where Mother's Day was met with enthusiasm, Father's Day was often met with laughter.[3] The holiday was gathering attention slowly, but for the wrong reasons. It was the target of much satire, parody and derision, including jokes from the local newspaper Spokesman-Review.[3] Many people saw it as the first step in filling the calendar with mindless promotions.[3]
A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913.[4] In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak in a Father's Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized.[2] US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress.[5] In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus "[singling] out just one of our two parents"[5] In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day.[2] Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.[2][5]
In 2010, the Father's Day Centennial Celebration [1] occurs in Spokane with a month of events commemorating the day.