Feature Article June 5, 2002
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Fathers Day Gift Giving Guideby Jeff GreenFathers arent really secondary parents in most families any more. With the amount of work a family has to do to get through a day, both parents have to struggle through as best they can, and every family divides up the labour according to their own circumstances. Fathers Day, however, is definitely an afterthought compared to Mothers Day.
All you need to do is say Mothers Day and visions of flowers, breakfast in bed, a nice dinner out, all come flooding through. It also takes place in early May, half way between Easter and the May long weekend. Mothers Day has a place; Mothers Day has status.
Fathers Day, however, is squeezed in at the middle of June. The unofficial summer is well underway, and barbecue season, high school proms, and school trips are all crowding up the familys agenda. Thrown into the midst of it, is Fathers Day.
Fathers Day couldnt take place in July, because July is a summer month, and no one would pay any attention. As it is, Fathers Day tends to come and go without a fuss. A card and a few words of encouragement, Happy Fathers day, Dad; and its off to whatever else is going on that third Sunday in June.
For retailers Fathers Day is, however, a chance to drum up sales. It is even fair to say, as crass as it sounds, this little article would never have been written if it werent for the Fathers Day gift giving guide it is surrounded by.
My memories of giving Fathers Day gifts dont jive with what were selling on these pages, however. So I will present, humbly, my own gift giving guide. This is what I used to give my father when I was young.
There was basically only one category of gift I knew of for Fathers Day. It was the toiletries category. For Mothers Day there was perfume or bath water, eau de toilette (I wasnt the most generous or inventive Mothers Day gift giver either); but for fathers day there was another option, Soap on a Rope.
I dont know if Soap on a Rope is still available, but it was the most wonderful gift ever in its heyday. A nice thick round bar of scented soap, with a nice manly smell, a thick braid of rope running right through it and looping around so the soap could rest on the shower faucet when not in use. There were several brand names, and I remember deciding between Yardley, the high-end soap on a rope, and some other more meager versions, with less substantial bars of soap, thinner ropes, and less of that crinkly clear plastic packaging. But they were cheaper, and if I wanted to buy some candy for myself and a Fathers Day gift, well
The other option for Fathers Day was after shave, but I never bought my father after shave, he bought his own, and still does.
Other people I know, including my wife Martina, were inclined towards buying Old Spice after shave for their fathers. Suzanne Tanner, who works for the News, recalls finding a stash of unopened Old Spice bottles hidden away in her father's room after he died.
So my gift giving guide is rather short: Soap on a Rope. Simple, clean, acceptable. Soap on a Rope; what more could father want?
If you look at the gift giving guide in our paper, you won't find Soap on a Rope, but you will find Ride-on Lawn Mowers, Chairs, TVs, Weed Wackers, and all manner of expensive toys, I mean tools. Are sons and daughters these days expected to spend $47 a month for three years, when I used to spend less than $5.00 all told when I was young?Not really. What Father's Day is really about is creating a bit leverage for the Dad. Its a chance for him to say, Its Fathers Day. Why cant I buy myself that ride-on mower? We do need a new mower, look at the grass. And if the circumstances are just right, and the rest of the family has been primed for this, it just might work, and a new mower may arrive on or around the 16th of June this year.
