The 10th Anniversary of my 1st Father’s Day by Michael Camden

July 18, 2014 by
Filed under: Bits and Tips 

Every June, we celebrate Father’s day. It is an opportunity to honor our dads.  Some people may call it a Hallmark holiday that has evolved into an attempt to cash in on our love and devotion of our fathers. Maybe it is, but I’m a lucky dad, so bring on the celebration.

According to Wikipedia, Father’s Day was not created by Hallmark. Instead, it was founded in Spokane, Washington at the YMCA in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd. Its first celebration was in the Spokane YMCA on June 19, 1910. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there.  After hearing a sermon about Mother’s Day in 1909, she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday honoring them.  Although she initially suggested June 5, her father’s birthday, the pastors did not have enough time to prepare their sermons, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father’s_Day)

This June is the 10th anniversary of my first father’s day; the first one playing the role of father rather than son. Thanks to my very first father’s day gift 10 years ago, my daughter honors me 365 days a year. That gift was something we have since come to call “Daddy Tree”.  In fact, every one like it is now called a daddy tree. These trees have not always been indigenous to the Hampton Roads region. Thankfully someone realized there was a market for them this far north.

I will never forget my first Father’s day. Ten years ago, I returned home from a trip on Father’s day for a photo opportunity with my little girl in front of our daddy tree, a 2 foot tall palm tree in our front yard by the mailbox. It was so cool! Ironically, I had just returned from sunny Florida, where no one would think twice about daddy trees. A few years later, on our first family trip to Disney, I’ll never forget her reaction to the trees in Orlando. Daddy trees were everywhere and my daughter was in heaven. We had not even seen the Magic Kingdom yet.  But not in our yard, there is only the one. Today, it towers over our driveway and stretches to the power lines.  It has grown taller from year to year, just as my little buddy has matured and blossomed.

The tree has served as a symbol of our family’s love and of our recognition of father’s day. It is a lasting and living memory reminding me, daily, of the joy and blessings of fatherhood.  Every year, we return to the foot of the daddy tree for another photo op; my daughter and the tree – each taller, and me – another year older with a little less hair.

I would not have anything to celebrate or to write about if it were not for my father (and mother), my loving wife, and of course my little girl. Thank you, sweet Caroline, for 10 awesome years. Happy father’s day dad and to every dad out there. Go spend some time making lasting memories with your kids. Perhaps you can plant your own daddy tree.

Michael Camden, MBA (father, husband, and son) is the Enrollment Coordinator for the Hampton Roads site of Troy University. He may be reached at 757-451-8203 or michael.camden@troy.edu.

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