Senior center hosts Father’s Day luncheon

The Johnston Senior Center hosted its annual Father’s Day Luncheon last Friday.

Everyone from Gilbert Marganadonna to Angelo Lonardo to Bob Vita enjoyed the day’s menu, which included such offerings as Italian wedding soup, a generous pot roast dinner and the popular strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Even John J. Prior Jr., 94 – who said he’s one year younger than his wife Florence – offered rave reviews about the luncheon and festivities, which included a raffle.

The Priors, in fact, had the distinction of being the oldest couple in the crowd of lunch-goers.

“On July 4, we’ll celebrate our 71st wedding anniversary,” Florence said. “We met years ago at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet in Cranston.”

Orlando Ricci, 100 is the senior center’s oldest member. He joined his friends, who meet daily for lunch and conversation, at the Father’s Day Luncheon.

In keeping with tradition, Executive Director Tony Zompa moved from table-to-table wishing all the attending men a happy Father’s Day, whether they held the title of dad or not.

The day’s lunch table talk centered on the 100th anniversary of Father’s Day, which contrary to popular misconception was not established as a holiday in order help greeting card companies increase sales.

“Mrs. John B. Dodd of Washington first proposed the idea of Father’s Day in 1909,” Zompa said. “She wanted a special day to honor her father, William Smart, who was a Civil War veteran and was widowed when he wife died in childbirth with her sixth child.”

Smart, as Zompa told it, “was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in eastern Washington State. It was after Mrs. Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising his children as a single parent.”

And so it happened, the first Father’s Day was observed on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Wash., at about the same time people in various towns and cities across America were beginning to celebrate the day.