by Marc Phillippe Babineau

Created on: June 03, 2008

Fathers Day has been around now for only 99 years, but since that number is retired, (Wayne Gretzky, the only player in sports to have a number retired by an entire league) let's say that it has been around for a Century. In 1909, Sonora Dodd of Washington, D.C., came to the conclusion that Fathers deserved a day, just like the one that they were at the time celebrating for Mothers, "Mothers Day". Her Father was the ultimate single father with six children, her mother dying giving birth to her. Her father made sure that his children had their basic needs and then some taken care of. He was a veteran of armed conflict, , the American Civil War, and deserving of a day of remembrance. The next year, Sonora held her first "Fathers Day" celebration on 19 June, 1910.

President Woodrow Wilson approved the idea of a National Day of Remembrance for Fathers in 1916. However, Fathers Day wasn't recognized as a National day of Remembrance until, in 1926, President Calvin Coolidge threw his support behind a day for Fathers, in the likeness of Mothers Day. According to inglewoodcarecentre.com, President Coolidge said that Fathers Day would " establish for more intimate relations between fathers and their children and to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations.". In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill proclaiming the third Sunday of June as Fathers Day. However, it was a bill, and not mandated as law. Fathers Day was not signed into law and made permanent until 1972 by President Richard Nixon.

The year previous to Miss Sonora Dodd's historical record of the first Fathers Day, on June 5, 1908, in Fairmont, west Virginia, a Fathers Day celebration was held at William Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as the Central United Methodist Church, where Grace Golden Clayton suggested a day to honor Fathers, following a disastrous explosion in nearby Monongah, Marion County, killed 361 men. This was the worst mining disaster in American history. A fitting tribute indeed.

Harry Meek, a Lions' Club President, celebrated the first Fathers Day with his members on the third Sunday in June, in 1915, the Sunday date being the closest to Meeks' own birthday that year. The stories all ring true, they are scenarios that you can believe, stories that cling to the American way of life, circa 1900.

There are other stories of how Fathers Day was founded, but the story of Miss Sonora Dodd, the daughter of William Smart, is the most popular and revered in North America. It is a story of love, courage, despair and honor, what America was borne of. It was not meant to be a memorial for fathers who died, it was meant for fathers alive, fathers to whom you can tell and show how much he means to you. But to know that Fathers did not have a reciprocal day for Mothers Day until 1972 makes many people believe that Fathers Day was introduced and/or lobbied to government (can you say cash payments?) by the greeting card companies. Conspiracy theories aside , Fathers Day is a day when, as a thankful and loving child, you buy your dad a Fathers Day card, a small gift to show your thanks, and a big hug for the big lug.

Thanks Dad, if I only knew then what I know now.

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