Patti Davis: Ronald Reagan, America's Father
When I was 9, I gave my father soap-on-a-rope for Father’s Day. I’d found it in the closet where my mother stored gifts that she didn’t want and intended to pass on to someone else. I made him a card with a drawing of a horse on it, since he had been helping me with my artwork. Father’s Day, like his birthday, was a puzzling experience. I never knew what to give my father. He had dozens of neckties, drawers full of sweaters, and I certainly couldn’t afford any kind of equestrian gear on my allowance. He did hang the soap-on-a-rope in his shower, though; I checked.
Ten years later, I mailed him a Father’s Day card from England, where I had gone for part of the summer with some friends from college. I addressed it to Gov. Ronald Reagan and sent it to Sacramento.
A decade after that, I addressed a card to President Reagan and sent it to the White House with a special number in the upper corner of the envelope so it would be separated from all the other mail. I called the White House switchboard on Father’s Day and asked to speak to him.
Through the years, I relinquished my father in stages. To ever-swelling crowds, to supporters who wore his name and photograph on buttons pinned to their shirts, to millions of voters who elected him by wide margins, and ultimately to an entire country. Whoever is president has been elected to parent America. It’s a role of father figure, disciplinarian, comforter in times of tragedy, coach in times of need, and professor when explanations are necessary....
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Ten years later, I mailed him a Father’s Day card from England, where I had gone for part of the summer with some friends from college. I addressed it to Gov. Ronald Reagan and sent it to Sacramento.
A decade after that, I addressed a card to President Reagan and sent it to the White House with a special number in the upper corner of the envelope so it would be separated from all the other mail. I called the White House switchboard on Father’s Day and asked to speak to him.
Through the years, I relinquished my father in stages. To ever-swelling crowds, to supporters who wore his name and photograph on buttons pinned to their shirts, to millions of voters who elected him by wide margins, and ultimately to an entire country. Whoever is president has been elected to parent America. It’s a role of father figure, disciplinarian, comforter in times of tragedy, coach in times of need, and professor when explanations are necessary....