Father's Day

It is time to remember our fathers. I would like to thank my father, father-in-law, and older brothers for positive influences in my life. The first paragraph is from Vanguard. The last section is Father's Day trivia. In the middle is my section. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

Vanguard

Inflation showed signs of decelerating and the pace of retail sales weakened, giving more evidence that economic growth has slowed recently. At the same time, some data (including the widely followed leading economic indicators and new housing starts) suggested that the economy is still making headway despite the challenges it has faced in recent months. For the week ended June 17, the S&P 500 Index rose less than one-hundredth of a percentage point to finish at 1,272 (for a year-to-date total return, including price change plus dividends, of about 2.0%). The yield of the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell 5 basis points to 2.94% (for a year-to-date decline of 36 basis points).

Happy Father's Day

If you have been following the debt ceiling negotiations, you have seen that retirement benefits are being looked at very intently. One of the best gifts you can give this year is a contribution to a retirement account. I made the same statement about Mother's Day. Helping someone have more resources in retirement is a wonderful thing.

Father's Day Trivia

Father's Day is a celebration of fathers inaugurated in the early twentieth century to complement Mother's Day in celebrating fatherhood and male parenting. Father's Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide and typically involves gift-giving, special dinners to fathers, and family-oriented activities.

The first observance of Father's Day actually took place in Fairmont, West Virginia on July 5, 1908. It was organized by Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton, who wanted to celebrate the lives of the 210 fathers who had been lost in the Monongah Mining disaster several months earlier in Monongah, West Virginia, on December 6, 1907. It's possible that Clayton was influenced by the first celebration of Mother's Day that same year, just a few miles away. Clayton chose the Sunday nearest to the birthday of her recently deceased father. Unfortunately, the day was overshadowed by other events in the city, West Virginia did not officially register the holiday, and it was not celebrated again. All the credit for Father's Day went to Sonora Dodd from Spokane, who invented independently her own celebration of Father's Day just two years later, also influenced by Jarvis' Mother's Day. Clayton's celebration was forgotten until 1972, when one of the attendants to the celebration saw Nixon's proclamation of Father's Day, and worked to recover its legacy.

The celebration is now held every year in the Central United Methodist Church – the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was torn down in 1922. Fairmont is now promoted as the "Home of the First Father's Day Service". A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak in a Father's Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized. US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress. In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus "[singling] out just one of our two parents" In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.In addition to Father's Day, International Men's Day is celebrated in many countries on November 19 for men and boys who are not fathers.