We'd like to wish everyone a very happy Father's Day!

About Father's Day

The driving force behind the establishment of the celebration of Father's Day was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd. Her father, William Smart, was widowed when his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. He was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself.

Mrs. Dodd 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 give the organizers enough time to make arrangements, and the first celebration was deferred to the third Sunday in June (coincidentally, that was June 19th, the same date we celebrate Father's Day this year). Unofficial support for the holiday was immediate and widespread.

Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. The observance of Father's Day was recognized by a Joint Resolution of Congress in 1956. Lyndon Johnson declared Father's Day an official holiday in 1966. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed into law a permanent U.S. Father's Day to be observed on the third Sunday of June.

Like carnations to be worn on Mother's Day, there is also a flower for Father's Day. Roses are the Father's Day flowers: red to be worn for a living father and white if the father has died.

In the evening, put small teaspoonfuls of ladybugs on premoistened foliage. (Adults may fly away but leave eggs to hatch into beneficial larvae that eat the larvae of whiteflies.)

Catch house spiders without harming them. Either use a commercial spider-catching device or drop a damp facial tissue over each spider and close the tissue gently under it. ( Spiders escape from dry tissues but climb up inside wet ones.) Place your captured spiders outdoors on such plants as hanging-basket fuchsias.