SPOKANE (WLNS) – As we celebrate our dad’s on June 21st, 2020, take a moment to learn some fun facts about this special day.
Sonora Dodd of Spokane, Washington thought of Father’s Day more than a century ago. Dodd wanted to honor her father, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran who was left to raise his six children on a farm.
The first Father’s Day celebration in the United States was on June 19th, 1910.
In 1972, President Richard Nixon made it permanent by signing the date into law.
There are an estimated 72 million fathers across the nation with 29 million of those fathers also being grandfathers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation.
If you are wondering how to honor the special men in our lives, take a tip from Comedian and dad Jim Gaffigan:
Did you know that the number one gift dads want on Father’s Day is a phone call from their children? That’s right. Not a tie, not a book, not a bottle of booze, not barbeque equipment. Not even one of those ugly, impersonal World’s Best Dad coffee mugs (which, by the way, no dad wants).
Forty-seven percent of all dads just want a phone call from their children. You know what? That makes sense. That’s all I want.
You see, if I got a phone call from children … I guess I should explain. I’ve spent the last three months with my children, and only my children. That’s 101 days of “quality time” with my kids (and only my kids). But who’s keeping track of time?
If you’re playing at home, that’s over 2,400 hours of just them and me.
But if they called me on Father’s Day, that would mean they wouldn’t be around me. I wouldn’t be able to hear them scream and complain.
And if they called me, I would know they were calling and I would let the call go to voicemail. Then I would text: “Sorry, I can’t talk right now, call you in 5 minutes.” But I’d never call.
That would be the best Father’s Day ever.
I’m kidding, kind of.
Happy Father’s Day everyone! Call your Dad! Especially if you live with him.
