Father’s Day has been around since 1910, when Sonora Smart
Dodd arranged a celebration at a YMCA in Spokane, Washington. Her dad, a Civil
War veteran, had been the single father of six. Hearing a Mother’s Day sermon
in 1909, Sonora decided men should get the same honor. President Calvin
Coolidge recommended the holiday in 1924 but stopped short of issuing a national
proclamation.
But the celebration didn’t catch on readily, criticized by
many as merely an excuse to replicate the commercial success of Mother’s Day. In
1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith accused Congress of ignoring half of
our parents. President Lyndon Johnson passed the first presidential proclamation honoring
fathers on the third Sunday in June (Sonora had initially wanted her father’s
birthday, June 5) and finally, President Richard Nixon sighed the holiday into law in 1972.
As for me, sadly, I lost my dad in a car accident some 30
years ago, just a few months after my son was born. I like to think the angels
part heavenly clouds once in a while so he can peek down and see how blessed I
am. Silly, but it gives me comfort. And
among my greatest blessings is a hubby who’s a terrific dad and grampa.
Therefore...
This poem is just too adorable not to share. Last year hubby
printed it out and framed it for our son and son-in-law who have each given us
a grandson
Enjoy Father’s Day! Oh, the photo isn’t anybody I know...(Dreamstime)
but it so fits!
A LITTLE FELLOW FOLLOWS ME
A careful man I want to be,
A little fellow follows me;
I dare not to go astray
For fear he’ll go the
self-same way,
I cannot once
escape his eyes,
Whatever he sees me do, he tries;
Like me he says
he’s going to be,
The little chap
who follows me.
He thinks that I am good and fine,
Believes in every word of mine;
The base in me he
must not see,
The little chap
who follows me.
I must remember as
I go
Through summer’s
sun and winter’s snow;
I am building for
the years to be
That little chap
who follows me.
