This Sunday is Father’s Day. Beside my desk, I have a cardboard necktie decorated with scraps of faded paper and hung from an orange strand of yarn that my daughter gave me for Father’s Day when she was five years old. It makes me smile when I see it. Since then, I have received a closet full of ties for the special day.

Each year as Father’s Day rolls around, I am reminded that Mother’s Day has a lot more marketing sizzle in the gift department. According to Fortune magazine¹, Mother’s Day is the largest day for the floral industry, outpacing other flower-power holidays such as Valentine’s Day. In comparison, Father’s Day does not come close to the mother of all retail sales day for two reasons: Mother’s Day comes first in the calendar year and Father’s Day is the sequel to Mother’s Day, and we all know that sequels rarely measure up to the original.

Here is a little history behind the day dedicated to paternity. The first Father’s Day was celebrated in Washington State on June 19, 1910². That’s when Sonora Smart Dodd, the daughter of William Smart, a single-father of six children, convinced the leaders of Spokane, Washington to honor fathers with a special day. Mother’s Day had its roots in the post-Civil War 19^th century. It was made a national holiday by Woodrow Wilson in 1908 when the second Sunday of May was designated for Mother’s Day. Sonora Dodd thought that fathers should also be recognized with a special day. She was 16 years old when her mother, Ellen Smart, had died. Her father stepped into the role of both father and mother for Sonora and her five younger brothers. She chose June because it was her father’s birthday month. The day caught on and began to spread to other areas of the country.

However, Sonora Dodd wanted to make a permanent place for Father’s Day. She began to talk to her congressman about a federal holiday declaration for the day. Although many congressional and presidential leaders thought Father’s Day was a splendid idea, inexplicably decades of administrations came and went without any official act. Sonora Dodd was a determined lady and would not be turned away. She continued to lobby for an official day to honor fathers. It was not until 1972, when Sonora was 90 years old, that she convinced the Nixon administration to heed her designs for a national Father’s Day and it became a federal holiday. It is celebrated on the third Sunday each June, just like that first Father’s Day back in Spokane.

So Mother’s Day comes around in May and Father’s Day follows in June. By the time Father’s Day became an official holiday, Mother’s Day had a 64-year jump on it. With a head start or not, how can you compete with mothers? I just enjoy the cardboard necktie and the fond memories.

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1. Mother’s Day is like the Super Bowl for florists, by John Kell, Fortune.com, May 8, 2015

2. The Man Who Inspired Father’s Day Was a Single Dad and a Civil War Vet, by Dave Roos, History Stories, history.com