Others Day

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

No, that’s not a typo. Let me explain…

This past Sunday was Mothers Day, and I hope all you moms out there had a good one. And for you dads, don’t worry, your day, while not as big a deal for some reason, will be coming up next month, so you’ve got a new tie or something on the way.

While both days are probably just made up holidays that the big greeting card and flower industries conspired to make up (I kid… both days are more than 100 years old) it is cool to celebrate all the mothers and fathers of the world, because let’s face it without mothers and fathers, none of us would be here.

But did you know, there’s also a Grandparents Day? I’ve heard tell of it over the years but I didn’t know until I looked it up just a few minutes ago that it is an actual holiday, celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day. If you didn’t know that, you

See VIEWPOINT, page A10 VIEWPOINT

From page A4

are not alone. It’s only existed since 1978 and it really hasn’t caught on.

It did get me to thinking, though, what other family holidays are out there? A lot, it turns out. July 24th is National Cousins Day, followed two days later on the 26th by National Aunt and Uncle Day. For you blended families, September 16th is National Stepfamily Day, and there’s even one for mothers-inlaw. National Mother-in-Law Day is the fourth Sunday in October. The fact that this can also occasionally be Halloween makes me chuckle… even though my own mother-inlaw is pretty OK considering some of the horror stories I’ve heard before.

Have we left anoyone out? Probably. So, here’s my idea… instead of having this day and that day for all the different “denominations” of family (oh, and friends. The first Sunday in August in National Friends Day), let’s just set aside one day a year to give a little salute to everyone. We can have in the late spring or early summer while the weather is still nice, maybe halfway between Mothers Day and Fathers Day, and we’ll call it Others Day.

We can have cookouts and exchange gifts with eveyone we want to recognize and no one gets left out.

Laugh all you want but National Joke Day isn’t until August 16th…