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Through My Eyes

Through My Eyes

Author: Kasia Yoko
Date: 2016-06-24
"I liked everything you said about motherhood," Mrs. Dodd told the minister. "However, don-'t you think fathers deserve a place in the sun, too?"

Father's Day has come and gone. I hope you all had a wonderful day, however if you have missed it, it's never too late to pop into a store and get dad a cool gadget or witty card to mark the occasion. On another note I am always intrigued at how we arrived at celebrating Father's Day or Mother's Day and which came first.

The story goes that the holiday is the brainchild of two different women. The first, Grace Golden Clayton of West Virginia, suggested to her pastor in 1908 that the church honour fathers, an idea likely inspired by a mining disaster in nearby Monongah the year before that killed 362 men and left 1,000 widows and children.

The other woman, more widely recognized as the creator of Father's Day, was Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Washington. Dodd and her five siblings were raised by a single father in a time when that was largely uncommon, and in 1910, she started a petition to recognize the holiday.

In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation to mark the celebration of Father's Day, and in 1972 President Richard Nixon finally signed it into law.

Mother's Day had a tireless champion in its founder, Anna Jarvis, who obsessively promoted her holiday. But Father's Day's founder, Dodd, had other interests — she was an artist, not an obsessive. Attempts to make the holiday a national one fell short, and interest flagged until 1936, when a group called the Father's Day Committee lent a hand.

New York Associated Menswear Retailers. Yes, Father's Day was truly boosted by people who sold neckties (as well as dapper shirts and hats, of course), and in 1938 they expanded their efforts to become the National Council for the Promotion of Father's Day.

Their efforts were in response to poor sales in 1937. Schmidt's book quotes one report that only one in six dads was getting a gift on the big day, so the group set the goal of increasing those sales.

With the help of dry goods, clothing, and tobacco associations, they did just that. They convinced Macy's to hold 1941's "Father's Day Sports Day" parade and also promoted civic-minded Father's Day events, like the selection of a father of the year.

Some think that like Christmas, Father's Day is here to stay and needs no organized effort. That is a fatal mistake. If the central bureau and organization promotion were discontinued, Father's Day would die a miserable death.

So the promotion kept going, and Dodd became more involved in selling the holiday, repeating her story happily to the press and other retailers.

Father's Day made it from upstart holiday to joke to billion-dollar national institution in a little more than 50 years. Not bad!

Regardless of what you get him (or don't get him), your dad probably just wants your love, so spend time with him if you can or give him a call if you can't. Unless, of course, he's one of the 14% of dads who were recently surveyed who just want to be left completely alone on Father's Day.