to the men of dhp " happy father's day -enjoy the day w/ your families

[music]

I miss my father very much but his good spirit lives w/ me. He was a loving husband to my mom and caring and unselfish father to my other nine brothers. Also, he prepared us for the world.

Happy Fathers Day Dad.

[ June 16, 2003, 04:22 AM: Message edited by: music ]

[mdpm99]

Greetings Music:

After reading your thread, very moving indeed, I came across the following info:

What does Father's Day mean to you? Maybe a homemade card, a new tie, or the chance to sit back and relax as your kids volunteer to do all the chores they normally dread. But how did it all begin? Very simply: with one daughter who wanted to honor the father she loved.

In 1909, a woman named Sonora Louise Smart Dodd from Spokane, Washington, listened to a church sermon about Mother's Day, a holiday that was just gaining popularity in the United States. Sonora's own mother had died in childbirth 11 years earlier, leaving her father, William Jackson Smart, to raise six children by himself. Suddenly the idea came to her: why shouldn't there be a day to recognize fathers, too?

Sonora petitioned the Spokane Ministerial Association and the local YMCA for a national day to honor dads - and it worked. The first Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane. Although there were many over the years who proposed making the day an official holiday, it took more than 60 years for that to happen. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed a law making Father's Day a nationally observed holiday on the third Sunday in June.

So when you receive that homemade card this Father's Day, think about this: to your child, you're just as special as the dad who inspired his daughter to start it all almost a century ago!