AMTIFY™

  ≈ Father’s Day – It Has It's Own History ≈ ∞ My List of Thoughts ∞ So, I did some research and have now added a bit of Father’s Day history to my vast fund of useless knowledge. It turns out Father’s Day began with Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, who wanted to honor her father for raising six children on his own after her mother died. Inspired by Mother’s Day, she proposed a day to recognize fathers and the role they play, with the first official Father’s Day taking place in 1910. Over the years, the idea gained support from presidents including Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge, until Lyndon B. Johnson officially proclaimed the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day in 1966. The decision was made to finally recognize that fathers actually do play a role in the type of people their children turn out to be. Not so coincidentally, the effort also enjoyed the enthusiastic support of companies that sold men’s clothing and other Father’s Day gift-related items. Battery ...

  Manhattan, New York Musings on a Trip to "The City" In the old days I took the train into Manhattan and back. Every day. I drove to the station, parked the car, walked to the platform, and got on the train. An hour and twenty minutes in, an hour and twenty minutes back. Rain, snow, heat, cold. Every day. I read the paper and some stuff in my obligatory briefcase, took a nap. No devices to play with, this was back in the dark ages. I never liked it much, but it was part of the price of rural living, so I traded time for woods and gardens. I wasn’t alone, many of my friends did the commute, and between them, the train friends created on the 6:18 every morning and then on the 8:28 every night, the routine went by fast, invisibly, leaving only a deeply entrenched dislike of traveling into Manhattan by any means whatsoever. A few weeks ago, I took the same train into The City, (not the 6:18 am, but it might  literally have been the same train…), but without carrying the planned ...