This year marks the 100th anniversary of Father’s Day being celebrated in the United States. The annual holiday was started back on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington by Sonora Smart Dodd to honor her father, Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, who had raised her and five other siblings on his own after their mother died in 1898.
Inspired by Anna Jarvis starting Mother’s Day, Sonora decided to put aside a day that would honor fathers as well each year. Although she wanted it to be celebrated on June 5th, her father’s birthday, Sonora did not provide the city with enough time to make plans for the celebration, so the city moved it to the third Sunday in June.
Fast forward 99 years later and yours truly found himself in Spokane while on a week long press trip through Washington, Sandpoint, Idaho and Vail, Colorado. It was in that very city that I received a phone call at around 7am which would forever change my life.
I had just landed after flying around for about 25-minutes in a trike (video below) and remember saying to myself “nothing is going to top this experience for awhile.” Well I was wrong. While driving back with the Communications Manager at Spokane Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau Pam Scott my wife called me in a panic. Let me just add that two days earlier she had called me in a panic to tell me that my car had been hit while parked and suffered serious damage, so you can imagine what I was thinking when I heard her alarmed voice.
But instead of her telling me someone else had sideswiped my ride, she said “I’m pregnant!” and “you’re going to be a daddy!” I was extremely happy, yet did not know how to react since Mrs. Scott was driving me to breakfast at the time and I did not want to alarm her.
Since most people keep this news a secret for the first three months, I had to make up a quick fib in order to explain the super wide grin and watery eyes on my face. I told her that my wife had just received great news on a job offer.
This amazing news was given to me on day two of a seven day press trip. So you can imagine how I must have been feeling while being escorted around to various events that week when all I could think about in the back of my head was that I was going to be a father.
Nine months later Aiden arrived happy and healthy. Today he is giggling, dribbling and burping almost as much as his old man. It is a pretty neat story that I can not wait to share with him when he is older. Maybe someday I will even bring him to Spokane for a ride on one of those trikes…with his mother’s permission of course.
Happy Father’s Day!
