Tag Archives: Black Friday

Slow Down for Turkey-Day!

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Does anybody else think we’re rushing Christmas a bit more than usual?

The day after Halloween, I noticed one of my neighbors had already hung his outside Christmas lights. Not only that, but our city has erected Christmas decorations, the shopping mall has its holiday trimmings up, “Jingle Bells” and such are playing on the radio stations, and some people even have their Christmas trees glowing from inside their windows.

Excuse me, but don’t we have another holiday to fall between Halloween and Christmas? Thanksgiving, remember?

Sure you remember. That’s the “feast” day — bring on the turkey, the trimmings, and the pumpkin pie! Loosen the belt buckles, watch football until your eyes grow weary, allow yourself the luxury of a nap.

It seems like The Food Channel is the only one talking about Thanksgiving these days!

With the nation’s economy in the pits, it’s no wonder merchants are pushing HARD for business, but some were even advertising Black Friday sales at the beginning of November.

That makes me kind of sad. I look forward to the urgency of those day-after-Thanksgiving sales, when throngs of people line up outside stores in the wee hours of the morning (stars still out and everything!) to await the opening of the doors, the mad rush inside, and the frantic grabbing of sale items!

Every year seems to have its hard-to-find, must-have item. Remember Cabbage Patch dolls? How about the Nintendo GameBoy, Razor Scooters, or Tickle Me Elmo? They practically guaranteed pandemonium when reports announced such items were in short supply.

I recall racing through a store one Black Friday to get a DVD player My Favorite Domer had to have! Funny how the “getting” of such items far surpasses the actual pleasure of “having” them.

But life’s like that, isn’t it? Too often, we relish the chase more than the prize itself.

Which brings me back to Thanksgiving.

Rather than trying to skip over this holiday in a mad rush to get the Christmas preparations underway, shouldn’t we simply enjoy this special time for what it means — faith, family, feast, and much thanks?

Beating the Black Friday crowds

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Show of hands now — how many braved the shoppers (and here, the frigid cold!) to hunt Black Friday bargains during the wee hours of the morning?

Because I stayed up late with My Favorite Domer watching Texas beat A&M on TV last night, I opted to sleep in a bit. Still, once I was up and had a decent breakfast, I hurried to the stores to see what I could find. I didn’t spend much, but I got a great deal on some fuzzy boots I’d been eyeing — best of all, they’re almost as comfy as my moccasins!

I couldn’t help recalling this time several years back, when MFD and I arose in the still-dark, dressed, and drove a half-hour away to a store we don’t have here because their flyer advertised HUGE SALES!

The main thing we were shopping for then was a DVD player, the portable kind, and he had to have one.

When we arrived, the parking lot was nearly full, and easily more than a hundred shoppers (bundled in coats and hats) were lined up in the parking lot, well away from the main doors.

No way were we going to do that!

We started sauntering toward the building — not an easy feat, since those other shoppers kept hollering bad things at us. Ignoring them, we continued and approached the doors, just as the employees were opening.

Of course, we scooted in practically first (those people were really mad by this time!). But hey, nobody said they had to line up in the brr-cold like idiots; there was no cordoning off tape, no signs, no tickets to take, and no security guards.

MFD was quite a bit shorter then, so he led the way, slipping in and out of the aisles like a real pro. The others, of course, had stopped to pick up shopping carts, slowing their progress way down. Inside of fifteen minutes, we’d picked up everything on our list and proceeded to check out.

What a rush! He still talks about it — me, I’m just glad we didn’t get shot. I’d almost rather pay a bit more and shop at my leisure, instead of tangling with uber-intent people over “stuff” neither of us truly needs!