The origin of Father’s Day and searching for Father’s Day gift ideas goes back to 1909, but it didn’t have much support
Vintage Fathers Day
until President Woodrow Wilson approved of the festival in 1916.
As we get closer to Father’s Day again this year we thought it might be fun to jump into the wayback machine, go back in time and find out what the most popular Father’s Day gift ideas were for each decade starting with the 1920’s.
In the roaring 20’s it was a fun, prosperous and peaceful time having emerged from World War 1 music and dancing seemed to be all the rage. The Ragtime in Harlem was lead by the late, great Willie “The Lion” Smith and of course the Charleston was at it’s most popular. Dressing up was all the go and the most popular Father’s Day gift ideas were the humble tie otherwise known as the oxygen restricting knot.
The 1930’s came in with a bang in the form of The Great Depression. The Stock Market having just crashed on October 29 1929. So, what do people do when the world around them looks dim with a bleak future? Yep, they dance and sing. The 1930 gave us the bouncy six beat variant of swing music called the jitterbug by the band leader Cab Calloway when he introduced a tune in 1934 entitled “Jitterbug“. Of course the 30’s also introduced ‘talkies’ that’s right, motion pictures with sound. The most popular Father’s Day gift ideas were of course very basic due to the Great Depression and were family pictures printed on canvas.
Roll on the 1940’s and of course a decade consumed by World War 2. Movies were very big in the 40’s and perhaps one of the greatest movies of all time came about in 1942, who could forget Casablanca? Lego were granted their first patents in the 1940’s and incredibly are still going strong today. The most popular Father’s Day gift ideas in the 1940’s were the candy box. Beautifully presented lolly selections in a box that could easily be shipped to anywhere in the world.
The 1950’s thankfully saw the end of Word War 2 but we never learn, we were off to war again, this time in Korea. The 50’s of course is most famous for the invention of rock ‘n’ roll (Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, Johnny Cash). Movies were again very popular and saw the emergance of some of the greats such as James Dean, Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe just to name a few. But probably the best thing to come out of the50’s would have to be TV. Movies and TV made us more aware of fashion and with smoking being so popular it comes as no surprise that The most popular Father’s Day gift ideas in the1950’s were cigars, pipes and tobacco.
Does anyone remember the 60’s? They say that if you do, you were probably not there. Yes the mind bending 60’s saw Hippies, Woodstock, drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll was never going to die! Jimmy Hendricks, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan The Beatles, The Rolling Stones wow, what a decade. Once again we were at war, this time in Vietnam. But the biggest events that occured in the 60’s was perhaps Rosa Parkes and the start of the civil rights movement or indeed Man landing on the Moon in 1969. Dad,s were still a bit daggy in the 60’s and so were the gifts so the most popular Father’s Day gift ideas were socks, jocks and hankies.
The 1970’s is best remembered for the invention of the video game and colour TV. Who remembers the Magnavox Odyssey or the Atari Pong? It’s ok to admit that you had one, just not if front of your kids. Where would video games be now if it wasn’t for Atari? The 70’s saw political turmoil in Australia as well as the US and in 1974 Australia abolished its White Australia Policy. I guess someone forgot to tell Pauline Hanson. The 70’s were forgettable in the fashion stakes with velure jumpers, bell bottom flaired pants and brown was cool??? So with daggy firmly in mind the best selling Father’s Day gift ideas in the 70’s were soap on a rope and awful smelling after shave lotions.
The 1980’s came around and sawPacman and Nintendo with their Mario Brothers rise to fame, as well as awareness of AIDS. Musically we had the worlds pop bands singing to gether to feed the world while Michael Jackson gave us the Moon Walk. The major movies were The Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and The Lost Arc, Crocadile Dundee and Back to the Future. Sadly we had to say good by to John Lennon who was gunned down in New York and of course pro-democracy protestors were killed at Tiananmen Square. The 1980’s also saw the rise and rise of Compact Discs and the first album ever released was Billy Joel’s Piano Man in 1982. I think you can guess that the biggest selling Father’s Day gift ideas 1n the 1980’s were music CD’s. The first million copy seller was Dire Straites – Brothers in Arms in 1985.
The 1990 saw the start of globalisation with the formation of The European Union after comunisum collapsed across Europe with the the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The decade started with operation Desert Storm, the internet was growing and the world as we knew it was rapidly changing. The brits had to fight off Mad Cow disease while Lorena Bobbit took brutal revenge (google it if you want further info). Nirvana, Alanis Morissettet and Sinead O’Connor were making most of us very depressed, so much so that we turned to alcohol. The most popular Father’s Day gift ideas in the 90’s was wine and whisky packs. To bad nobody told my kids!
Having made it into the next milenium without the planes falling out of the sky with the Y2K bug we didn’t have to wait that long before planes did fall out of the sky on September 11 2001 with the Terrorist Attacks in the USA that changed our reality over night. Pain and suffering dominates the 00’s as we all remember the massive toll from the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Some uplifting stuff happened though, we saw the first Black President of the USA elected and the massive franchise that is the Harry Potter Movies. Musically we listened to Robbie Williams and Britney Speares and we fell hook line and sinker for reality television. Come on, who’s to blame? The biggest Father’s Day gift ideas for this decade is without a doubt the gadget. Mobile phones, palm pilots, GPS, digital electronics the list is endless.
Another decade begins and we will have to wait and see what the best Father’s Day gift ideas are for the years 2011 – 2020
