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June 2020 - Antique Shoppe - 17
“SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE:

Design Trends of the Mid-20th Century”
By Donald-Brian Johnson

Father Knows Best: Celebrating Dad’s Day

decades went by without official
Once a year (at least), Dad
gets his due. That’s when recognition. Why the delay?
Father’s Day rolls around. It’s Well, according to one member
of the Florist’s Exchange,
our opportunity to celebrate all fathers just didn’t have the same
the great dads out there. . .but
without “Mother’s Day”, our “sentimental appeal” as mothers.
Finally, in 1966, Lyndon B.
sires might still be in search of a
celebration to call their own. Johnson officially proclaimed the
third Sunday in June as “Father’s
The first Mother’s Day
observance was held on May Day”. In 1972, a law to that
10, 1908 at Andrew’s Methodist effect was signed by Richard
Nixon, and 90-year-old Sonora
Church, Grafton, West Virginia,
In Fairmont, West Virginia, just Smart Dodd was around to see it
happen.
15 miles from Grafton, By then, of course,
Grace Golden Clayton
was immediately Father’s Day had become
what the Father’s Day
inspired by the event.
On July 5, 1908, Council called “ a
second Christmas for all
Clayton organized the men’s gift-oriented
a “Father’s Day”
service at Williams industries.”
Continued on Page 19
Memorial Methodist
Episcopal Church
South. Hundreds of SHOWN TOP TO
area fathers (including BOTTTOM- An easy-going
Clayton’s) had perished Father’s Day: Dad reclines,
in a December, 1907 in a hammock of “real
mining disaster. She’d net”, on a card by Gibson.
suggested the event as • A Hallmark greeting
a means of honoring from 1950 begins “From
these men, as well as all Alaska to Nebraska”, and,
fathers. on successive pages,
Clayton, however, was not a promoter. Following manages to make it around the globe. The final
the 1908 “Father’s Day”, the idea of a holiday message: “From Savannah to Havana -- From
honoring the man of the house languished until Quebec to Timbuctoo -- There’s no wife who loves
1910, when Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, her hubby half as much as I love you!” • Getting
Washington was similarly inspired. After hearing a the message across: faux “typewriter ribbon”
Mother’s Day sermon, Dodd became convinced that adds to the theme.
Dad also needed a Golden Bell, 1943. •
day. She suggested Winging across the
June 5th, her own miles: airplane visual
father’s birthday, on a 1952 Rust Craft
but time was short. card “designed by a
The celebration was member of Boston’s
delayed until June Rust Craft Artists’
19, 1910, when Guild”. • A day spent
ministers throughout fishing gets the
Spokane praised cartoon treatment
Dads from their in a 1947 Rust Craft
pulpits. card. • A Golden Bell
Father’s Day (Gartner & Bender
caught on with the Inc.) card from 1943,
public and retailers, “For A Model Dad”,
featuring raised
yet despite Dodd’s wooden lettering.
tireless promotion,