Many Dads, Little Time : Holiday: A comfy recliner, or maybe some new drill bits? For many last-minute Father’s Day shoppers, race to find the right gift for that special guy will end in a tie.

Without hesitating for even a moment, Jamie O’Neal blurts out her answer: “Underwear.”

Really?

“It’s a need, not a want,” explains the administrative assistant from South-Central Los Angeles, who has set her sights on a Father’s Day present for her husband, Michael. O’Neal, part of the crush of last-minute holiday gift-seekers overrunning the malls Saturday, said the eleventh-hour shopping is inevitable. “It’s human nature,” she said during a break in the madness at Robinsons-May in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.

As the deadline approached, mothers and children scoured the stores, test-driving La-Z-Boy recliners, fidgeting with gizmos and fingering ties. Lack of time seemed to force shoppers into quick-and-easy sales. Creativity fell by the wayside. Salesclerks scrambled to ring up a construction yard’s worth of tools and an ocean of cologne.

Yet neither shopper nor stock boy could definitively answer the fundamental questions underlying the day for dads: Why ties, cologne and tools? And why do people put off shopping until the final, absolute last second?

“We live in a society that is just rushed,” offered Debra Ocon-Sanchez, a UCLA graduate student who bought bottles of Tuscany for her husband and her father. “I just saw that they were prepackaged, so I got them.”

“We’re very sure we’re getting a tie,” said a determined-looking Faye Peitzman, a college professor who found a fashionable blue-and-gray Peter Thomas number and a matching gray shirt for her husband. “My husband likes ties. And we know it’ll fit.”

It didn’t always take a gift to show Dad that you care. Back in 1910, when one Sonora Dodd picked a day to honor her father, a Civil War veteran, she offered tribute with a simple sermon. Today, Father’s Day is a $7-billion business for retailers, according to the New York-based Father’s Day Council.

“Here’s the deal on Father’s Day,” explained Gwen Coleman, an actress from West Los Angeles.

At last.

“You go shopping with your kids, and you walk out of every store with something that’s perfect. For you or your daughter,” said Coleman, who bought a pair of boxer shorts--for her daughter.

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Some determined gift-hunters resisted the traditional route, however, and spent endless hours mulling over what to get men who have everything, don’t want anything and already have that particular set of drill bits.

“If I could buy him a ticket to Venus, I would,” said Sheryl, seeking a gift for her husband among the gadgets on display in the Brookstone store in the Beverly Center. “Every year, we assume it’s easier to buy for men. You think you can do it at the last minute.”

As far as gifts that are available in stores, though, shoppers say it’s tough to beat the classics.

Such as the Wondertool. A six-in-one device designed for hard-core Mr. Fixits, the Wondertool caught the eye of Danny T., a 12-year-old who was shopping for his Dad with Sheryl and, like her, declined to give his last name.

“He likes to build,” said Danny, who explained that he put off Father’s Day shopping because he was too busy. “If we need something around the house, he builds it.” He said he would supplement the Wondertool with a pair of boxer shorts that depict a tool belt.

Some shoppers tried to avoid the old faithful gift ideas, but ended up embracing them anyway in the weekend buying frenzy.

“I know men don’t want ties for Father’s Day,” said Karen Marcus, an executive assistant from Marina del Rey, as she sifted through the neckwear on sale at the Broadway. “I did start shopping during the week. My father is impossible to buy for because he’s not into clothes or gadgets. But you want to get him something because you love him.”