Father's Day

Taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:The driving force behind the establishment of the integration of Father’s Day was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd, born in Creston, Washington. Her father, the Civil War veteran, William Jackson Smart, as a single parent raised his six children in Spokane, Washington. She was inspired by Anna Jarvis’s efforts to establish Mother’s Day. Although she initially suggested June 5, the anniversary of her father’s death, she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June.

The first June Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in SpokaneUnofficial support from such figures as William Jennings Bryan was immediate and widespread. President Woodrow Wilson was personally feted by his family in 1915. President Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson made Father’s Day a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The holiday was not officially recognized until 1972, during the presidency of Richard Nixon.

On this Father’s Day, June 17, 2007, I have no poem of my own, so I am printing a poem our son, Don wrote to his father when he was 25 years old. Later, I will print poems of our other sons.

Well, this is just a story of how a boy became a man.

He never really noticed such.

He never had a plan.

He left his home & family to educate his mind.

But got lost in search of wisdom,

‘cause he’d left the truth behind.

Yet the years were good to him, each day his knowledge grew;

But with his understanding

A bitterness came too.

And though he wasn’t Atlas carrying all the world,

His burden was just as heavy

He wished he were a bird.

It wasn’t because of war and hate, death, disease or pain,

But because these things were everywhere,

And the song remained the same

So he wandered on from day to day with many directions to choose.

And he tried to follow all of them,

Except for just a few.

And though each endeavor brought no wealth or fame,

He lived and learned of life and love

And from where he came.

And then he met a pretty girl with wildness in her eyes.

She seemed so full of all his dreams,

And she never told him lies.

So they dreamed their dreams together and felt each others fire.

And shared as one their laughs and cries,

Their souls most treasured desires.

Before, the Lord, they promised each all that was in their hearts.

For deep inside they knew at last

They’d never be apart.

And by their love, the Lord above blessed them with a son.

The boy had become a man at last

with their new number one.
Thanks Pop for letting me carry on
Donny 6/17/79