STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Sunday marks 115 years since the first Father's Day. I don't know - it feels to me like almost every day is Father's Day. NPR's Ana Perez tells us how it all got started.
ANA PEREZ, BYLINE: For Garret Martin of Arlington, Texas, this Father's Day is a special one.
GARRET MARTIN: I'm looking at my son and thinking, what kind of man do I need to be in order to help him grow into a good man?
PEREZ: Teddy is only 6 months old, and he's completely transformed Martin's life.
MARTIN: It's been really amazing to see the recognition grow in his eyes and see him experience new things. It's really beautiful.
PEREZ: Martin told his wife, Emily, he wanted penny loafers for his first Father's Day. Now, whether you're taking your dad out to dinner or buying him a new grill, the National Retail Federation says Americans are expected to spend a record $24 billion this year. All of this kind of got me wondering - how did Father's Day come to be? So I called up an expert.
MEGAN DUVALL: Megan Duvall, and I am the historic preservation officer for the city and the county of Spokane, Washington.
PEREZ: Duvall tells me Father's Day was started by a woman - Sonora Smart Dodd.
DUVALL: She was 16 at the time her mother passed away, and she had five little brothers. And so her father was left a widower.
PEREZ: Duvall says Dodd and her father were close because they had to raise such a large family together. One day, she was listening to a church sermon all about mothers.
DUVALL: After the service, she approached the minister and said, you know, that was really lovely, but you didn't mention fathers at all. And I was thinking that maybe we needed a celebration of fathers.
PEREZ: She filed a petition to create one soon after. By the next year, 1910, the first Father's Day was officially celebrated in Spokane. But Sonora Smart Dodd wasn't done promoting the holiday.
DUVALL: She basically sort of partnered up with retailers' associations, merchants, who saw this as an opportunity to sell tobacco and whiskey and ties and a shirt - you know, celebrate your father with a gift.
PEREZ: Duvall says Dodd's photo appeared in newspaper ads for dad products in the 1940s. In 1972, the mother of Father's Day got to see her dream come true. The holiday was recognized at the federal level. Over a century since the first celebration, Father's Day takes on many shapes and sizes and can mean different things to different people. For Garret Martin, it's a day of appreciation.
MARTIN: I think a part of growing up is realizing that your parents are human, and realizing all the different ways that they've impacted you and shaped who you are.
PEREZ: For NPR News, I'm Ana Perez.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CAT'S IN THE CRADLE")
HARRY CHAPIN: (Singing) And he was talking 'fore I knew it. And as he grew, he'd say, I'm going to be like you, Dad. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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