When I look back on my childhood it is a blur of memories, most of which are jumbled up and distorted by however I perceived things at the time. Sometimes these things can be quite funny and when I tell a story the way I think it happened I am always surprised to hear the real version. However there are those memories that are so clear that I can actually feel or smell what it is that I am remembering. With Father’s Day approaching I find myself having those clear memories of my father playing with my hair and singing me a song that I can still hear today, as he tucked me in for bed. The way that it felt to see him walk through the door after he had been away at work, and how he would pick me up in his arms and spin me around, will be something I’ll always cherish.


Father's Day is always the third Sunday in June. It is the day when we honor the fathers and men who play father-like roles in our lives. Father’s Day is a day to show our fathers, grandfathers, stepfathers, fathers-to-be or any father-like figure how much they mean to us.

The first Father’s Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington, in June 1910, thanks to a woman named Sonora Dodd who came up with the idea in 1909. Mrs. Dodd's mother died in childbirth and her father, William Jackson Smart, had raised her and her five siblings alone. While listening to a Mother's Day sermon at a church near her family's home in eastern Washington State, Mrs. Dodd thought about the sacrifices her father had made for his children and what a great job he had done raising them all alone. Because her father had been born in June, she decided to encourage the churches in her area to honor fathers in June.

Congress passed several resolutions over the years in support of Father's Day but it did not become an official U.S. holiday until 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day and put the official stamp on a celebration that was going on for almost half a century.

In early times, wearing flowers was a traditional way of celebrating Father's Day. Mrs. Dodd favored the red rose to honor a father still living, while a white flower honored a deceased dad. J.H. Berringer, who also held Father's Day celebrations in Washington State as early as 1912, chose a white lilac as the Father's Day Flower.

So wear a flower for your dad on father’s day, have a picnic, buy him that power tool he’s been wanting, make him a card, surprise him with a gift basket from Susan’s Basket Store, or if you cant think of anything else, you cant go wrong with a big hug and an I love you.

It was easy to adore my father everyday when I was a kid but now that I am grown and the distance between us is far, it is easy to get preoccupied with work and school and forget to give him a call just to let him know that I love and appreciate him. That’s why a smart woman almost one hundred years ago decided to pick a day to single out fathers and let them know that we didn’t forget the love and care they provided us.