Father’s Day, anyone?

Jerry Garcia neckties? Racy swimsuit calendars? Phony Viagra gift certificates? Sonora Smart Dodd would be appalled.

Credited with being the mother of Father’s Day, first observed on June 19, 1910, Mrs. Dodd had in mind a solemn holiday free of the almighty dollar, designed to honor dads with words of affection and modest gifts.

Sonora’s father, Civil War veteran William Smart, was her inspiration. Her mother had died in childbirth, leaving Mr. Smart to raise six young children by himself. Moved by her father’s struggles on his farm in eastern Washington state, Mrs. Dodd later persuaded her minister in Spokane, and others, to honor him along with all fathers.

The holiday has been observed on the third Sunday in June, the month of her father’s birth, ever since, following the lead of Washington Gov. M.E. Hay, with whom Mrs. Dodd had conferred.

Some predicted crass commercialism. Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge refused to issue presidential proclamations, although in 1924 Coolidge, a father himself, recommended widespread observance of the holiday “to establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children, and also to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations.”

In the ensuing years, Father’s Day has gained more legitimacy, but remains a curious holiday sandwiched between Mother’s Day, celebrated on the second Sunday in May, and the Fourth of July.

John F. Kennedy was campaigning for president in 1960 when a reporter asked him about his father, Joseph.

“My father would be for me if I were running as head of the Communist Party,” quipped presidential candidate JFK, with only slight exaggeration.

Now that’s fatherly love, spoken by a son who loved him.