On June 19, 1910, a Father’s Day celebration was held at the YMCA in Spokane, Washington, by Sonora Smart Dodd. Her father, the civil war veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there. She was also a member of Old Centenary Presbyterian Church (now Knox Presbyterian Church), where she first proposed the idea. After hearing a sermon about Jarvis’ Mother’s Day in 1909 at Central Methodist Episcopal Church, she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday to honor them. Although she initially suggested June 5, her father’s birthday, the pastors did not have enough time to prepare their sermons, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday in June. Several local clergymen accepted the idea, and on June 19, 1910, the first Father’s Day, “sermons honoring fathers were presented throughout the city”.

62 years later, it was finally made a federal holiday. That was a wild ride.

Frankly, I’m surprised feminists haven’t tried to de-establish it as a blow to toxic masculinity.

Regardless, my personal thoughts on Father’s Day are as follows:

In 1885, at the age of 18, a Swedish farm hand said “this stinks” and hopped a boat to America. At the age of 49, his 43 year old wife gave him a baby boy. Who eventually decided that farming stunk, and got himself a nice cushy factory job where you only have to work 8 hours a day and get weekends off.

At the age of 49, his 42 year old wife gave him a baby boy.

Who doesn’t have to work in a factory, and makes millions of people happy on the internet every day.

I am grateful for fathers who live the American Dream of doing what they need to do in order to make life better for their children.