Dadication

Today is Father’s Day. While the focus is men, the country owes the holiday to women. Three in its earliest history and another four decades on are:

• 1908, Grace Golden Clayton organized a celebration following a West Virginia mining disaster that killed her father among many other men.
• 1909-1910, Sonora Smart Dodd initiated a companion to Mother’s Day in Spokane, Washington.
• 1911, Jane Addams, social reformer and suffrage activist, proposed a Chicago Father's Day.
• 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith chastised Congress for honoring one parent and ignoring the other for 40 years.

Despite their best efforts, it took nearly seven decades after Mother’s Day for a corresponding Dad’s day to become officially observed. At the presidential level,

• 1916, Woodrow Wilson spoke at Spokane’s Father’s Day festival organized by Dodd.
• 1924, Calvin Coolidge proposed a day for fathers amid strong opposition.
• 1966, Lyndon Johnson unofficially observed the holiday throughout his term.
• 1972, Richard Nixon signed recognition into law.
• 1977, Jimmy Carter issued Proclamation 4505 designating the 3rd Sunday in June as the official holiday.

Leigh and (imaginary) offspring

Adaptive Adoption

Me, I have no children although a girl once ‘adopted’ me and still calls me ‘Dad’. We might share DNA: Like me, she’s a ruff, tuff, cream puff with a twisted sense of humor. She’s fearless and tender at the same time. That’s the closest I’ve come to fatherhood.

Gentleladies have asked why I have no children and I honestly answer that I never grew up enough. I orbit my own planet in a cosmic haze of my own. A good companion might handle that, but can you imagine one, two, or three Mini-Me tots tugging her skirts and messing up my first grade teacher’s game of telephone as a lesson on gossip?

I’ve written about my Dad who embraced an amazing range of interests and was largely self-taught. At 6’4, he was a presence. Women and small children adored him. I still have anger issues surrounding his unnecessarily death, an arrogant screw-up largely attributable to the Mayo. Nevertheless, I have good memories, especially when I was very young and learning at his proverbial knee. I count myself lucky.

Ain’t Got a Home

If you have a good father in your life, you are fortunate too. A sizable proportion of children have little or no male parenting in their lives. We owe it to our families to count our blessings.

And then there’s Clarence Frogman Henry who ain’t got no fodder, ain’t got no mudder, ain’t got no sister, not even a brudder. He’s a lonely frog, ain’t got a home.