Father’s Day: 3 Things To Do Near Germantown To Celebrate Dad

GERMANTOWN, MD — Father's Day is fast approaching, but there's still time to make plans for the dads in your life in Germantown.

If you're looking for a unique Father's Day plan, take the dad in your life to the Cabin John Ice Rink skate for dads on Sunday. Looking for something more seasonal? Consider a picnic at one of Germantown's parks. There are also plenty of places near Germantown to take your dad out for a day of fishing if you're looking for some quality time outdoors.

In Montgomery County, consider taking the father in your life out for a walk in Rock Creek Park, a camping trip at Little Bennett Campground, or set up a tee time at one of the county's public golf courses.

• Related: Father's Day Gift Guide 2022

A Brief History Of Father’s Day

Father’s Day didn't become a national holiday on equal footing with Mother’s Day until 1972, about six decades after President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the holiday celebrating America’s mothers in 1914.

The whole idea of a day to celebrate fathers for simply doing their duty — providing for their families — struck them as silly and trite when it was the nation’s mothers who were underappreciated, Lawrence R. Samuel wrote in “American Fatherhood: A Cultural History.”

Men “scoffed at the holiday’s sentimental attempts to domesticate manliness with flowers and gift-giving, or they derided the proliferation of such holidays as a commercial gimmick to sell more products — often paid for by the father himself,” according to one historian’s account shared by The Old Farmer’s Almanac.

The first Father’s Day observance in the United States was held on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington, and it was organized by Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widowed Civil War veteran.

Dodd thought fathers like hers should be honored in the same way mothers are. So she set out on a campaign to make it happen, convincing local churches, civic groups, shopkeepers and governmental officials of the idea’s merit. Accordingly, on the third Sunday of June in 1910, preachers across the state of Washington gave sermons honoring fathers.

In the years following, U.S. presidents and other politicians continued to nudge forward the idea that Father’s Day should be made a federal holiday.

In 1916, President Wilson used telegraph signals to unfurl the flag in Spokane when he pressed a button in Washington, D.C., where he celebrated Father’s Day with his own family. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge asked state governments to observe Father’s Day.

And even though Father’s Day was an unofficial holiday, families around the country celebrated it. Silk neckties became the go-to gift for dads and were mass-produced in the 1920s to meet the demand, according to Good Housekeeping.

Father’s Day survived a movement in the 1920s and 1930s to do away with and de-commercialize the individual observances and celebrate Parents’ Day instead. Pro-Parents’ Day rallies were held in New York City’s Central Park during those years to raise awareness around the idea that, in the words of Parents’ Day activist and radio performer Robert Spere, “both parents should be loved and respected together,” according to History.com.

During the Great Depression, retailers and advertisers overcame many Americans’ hesitance to part with their money with promotions to make Father’s Day “a second Christmas” for fathers, according to History.

When World War II came along, marketing efforts shifted, according to Good Housekeeping. Father’s Day became another way to honor U.S. troops and support the war effort, though some dismissed that as propaganda, according to Good Housekeeping.

Still, Father’s Day was firmly institutionalized, even if it wasn’t an official holiday that Wilson had hoped for.

In the 1950s, Maine Sen. Margaret Chase Smith pleaded with Congress to make Father’s Day official, arguing that Congress “has been guilty now for 40 years of the worst possible oversight against the gallant fathers of our land.”

“Either we honor both our parents, mother and father, or let us desist from honoring either one," she wrote.

In 1961, Washington Republican Congressman Walt Horan, whose district included Spokane, gave a speech on the House floor in support of an effort to make Father’s Day an official holiday. The 11-term congressman didn’t live to see it happen; he died in 1966.

That year, President Lyndon B. Johnson, who reportedly was keen on the idea of a national Father’s Day holiday, issued the first-ever presidential proclamation honoring fathers.

Johnson’s successor, President Richard M. Nixon, made Father’s Day a federal holiday in 1972, writing in a proclamation:

“… In fatherhood, we know the elemental magic and joy of humanity. In fatherhood, we even sense the divine, as the Scriptural writers did who told of all good gifts coming "down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" — symbolism so challenging to each man who would give his own son or daughter a life of light without shadow.
“Our identity in name and nature, our roots in home and family, our very standard of manhood — all this and more is the heritage our fathers share with us. It is a rich patrimony, one for which adequate thanks can hardly be offered in a lifetime, let alone a single day. Still it has long been our national custom to observe each year one special Sunday in honor of America's fathers; and from this year forward, by a joint resolution of the Congress approved April 24, 1972, that custom carries the weight of law. …”

Although on equal footing with Mother’s Day as an official U.S. holiday, consumer spending for Father’s Day doesn’t come close to matching the amount of cash Americans lay out to celebrate their mothers.

This year, Father’s Day spending is expected to be about $20.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. That compares with about $32 billion spent on Mother’s Day.