Father’s Day inspiration
By Paula Scott
Father’s Day shouldn’t pass without a mention in the Icons. I’m sorry to say that Mother’s Day 2022 passed without note on our Bluffton site, while Ada received a shopping countdown. Indeed, gifts and meals are often how we lavish love on family members. In my own family, Mother’s Day has been squeezed in between countless soccer tournaments and graduations, while Father’s Day in June seems a bit more leisurely.
Icon duties have taken me to both Ada and Bluffton cars shows this past week, which has me reminiscing about learning to drive with my dad in a late ‘60s Chevy Nova. I’m nostalgic about that Nova even though I never properly learned the difference between priming the starter and flooding it. I’m not so nostalgic about the AMC Hornet wagon we drove later or about learning to drive a manual transmission Ford Escort.
Looking for inspiration for this piece, I asked myself, “what about Father’s Day 100 years ago?” Mother’s Day and Father’s Day were first observed in the United States in the early 1900s and, according to History.com, there was a movement in the ‘20s and ‘30s to combine the two. To me, that’s kind of like celebrating the birthdays of two siblings with one cake.
I checked the June 14, 1922 Ada Record–available via the Ada Public Library–for some local details and found… no mention of Father’s Day.
However, there are treats you could have given dad in 1922:
- $35.00 suits from Hart Schaffner & Marx sold at Dettrick & Michael. Adjusted for inflation, that’s a $600 suit.
- Films including “The Souls of Men” and “Hearts Haven” at the Odeon Theater. Tickets were 10 and 20 cents, “war tax included.” Lehr Auditorium advertised “Three Live Ghosts,” promising “constant surprises and laughs for a solid hour.”
- Eight “high class vaudeville acts” were performing in the big “Airdome” at an East Lincoln lot. What’s an airdome? Online images suggest that it was an open air theater with folding chairs and likely no roof.
With so many cars on my mind, ads for tires, auto supplies and tractors also caught my attention. U.S. brand tires were advertised at $10.90 each, making that set of tires $765 in today’s dollars–not much more expensive than that suit.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there.
Stories Posted This Week
Friday, June 6, 2025
- Logan Jolliff places 11th in OHSAA D3 preliminaries
- Canadian wildfire smoke could impact NW Ohio
- Save the Date: July 12 Park in the Park
- Ada Board of Education to hold special executive session on June 11
- Park board hears plans for concessions stand
- May 2025 land transfers in the Ada School District
Thursday, June 5, 2025
- Can you name the location of Pat's News Stand?
- June 9 ice cream social at Ada FUMC
- Land of Confusion: Is cannabis weed-ing out your ability to think clearly?
- Blacksmithing demonstrations on June 14 at Schumacher Homestead
- Content creators wanted for Ada Icon
- Crime Victim Services hosts Anti-Violence Teen Summer Retreat
- ACE Day coordinators seek projects for August 23
Wednesday, June 4, 2025
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
- Dwight Thomas Friesner served in the U.S. Army
- BlufftonIcon.com headlines for June 3
- Congratulations to Officer Michael Bollinger
- Chance R. Watkins worked at PlastiPak Packaging
- Public meetings scheduled for Ada committees, commissions
- Aggregation letters sent to Ada residents not enrolled in electricity programs
- Upcoming APL events, June 2-7
- Sign of the times