No doubt, some of you are on the road home, or perhaps still on the road going somewhere, and may whatever particular deity you believe in have mercy on your spirit, soul, bank account, or whatever you consider most holy.
For my part, even early in the week, days before Black Friday, I can see into the future, where there is fire in the fireplace (gas logs), dogs on the bed, and it’s warm and toasty inside, with a moderate amount of yardwork being done, then writing.
Mom and I will not be venturing forth for Thanksgiving, and we sure as hell aren’t leaving the house and hounds for Black Friday.
For the greater part of my life, I would venture to Mom’s house and my father’s house for the holidays, but with Mom here, anyone wishing to see me, and her, must come here now. I will travel no more on the holidays, and neither will Mom.
I have never shopped on this day, and I never will. There were people injured in a riot a few years ago in the Valdosta Wal-Mart when a fight broke out over towels being sold for four dollars. I have no idea what the towels were made of that people would fight over them, but I cannot imagine getting into a fist fight with several other people for towels. It sounds stupid from over here.
One year, there were people camping out at the Best Buy in Valdosta to buy laptops that were cheap. The line was fifty people long at midnight. The laptops were still on sale a week later, and you didn’t have to sleep on concrete to get one.
A friend of mine bought a gun safe on Black Friday back in 2017. He got it dirt cheap, and once he bought it, they helped him load it on a trailer, and he was screwed. It was too heavy for the two of us to get it into his house, and once he started doing the measurements, it wouldn’t fit through the door. “Pivot! Pivot!” Six inches of the safe had to be cut off or six inches of the doorway. Going in longways would have worked but it had to be turned to get it in, and that would have taken a gang of men with muscles. The safe sat on the trailer for three weeks until he sold it. But he got such a great deal on it.
Mostly, like all things involved with Christmas, Black Friday is a time of waste. Huge piles of garbage will be generated for no good reason at all, and people will buy things they do not need and will not use, simply because they can.
But for the next month or so, more of that will go on than any other time of the year.
Take Care,
Mike
Mike writes regularly at his site: The Hickory Head Hermit.
Opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the management of this site.
We have Black Friday sales in Australia now too. None of us no why or what it means. I guess we’ll have Thanksgiving before long. People already drive around with vote Trump flags. I wonder if they did.
Tania, that is the saddest thing I have read in a while.
We could trade you “Boxing Day” – bound to equally confuse Americans
It’s not the towels, it’s the bragging rights. Like the Heavyweight belt is not about the belt but the victory it’s proof of. Having those towels… I should say being able to brag you have those towels, after all you’re not going to carry one over your shoulder everywhere you go.
Hmm… safety pin + bath towel = cape… but I digress…
Oh, being able to brag about having the towels automatically gives people notice you’re a brawler, a badass, not to be challenged or taken lightly..
With the right manager you could go to towel sales in New York, Miami, Vegas, even the Towel Cup in Europe.
Damn, Bruce, that makes an odd kind of sense. It’s like people go out en masse and they all want to see if they can win Black Friday, and tell people they have the towels to prove it.
I usually will not leave my house until after about the 1st except to go to work. Today however, my son, daughter-in-law and my 2 grandsons and I ventured out to a couple of bookstores. Yes, my grandsons love books. I’m pleased and proud. I have to say, there were no brawls in any of the stores we visited, no one fighting to get a book, everyone there was nice and dare I say had good manners. Readers are a different kind of people I guess. Even the children were nice and for the most part well behaved. They seemed exited by the thought of getting a new book, but I thought that was fine. My eldest grandson is really into the alphabet right now and managed to find many books on the subject. He was quite happy. The youngest likes wheels at the moment, he too found a variety of books to his liking. There was excitement with no brawling. Time well wasted.
You cannot waste time in a bookstore, Chick. Your genetics have successfully been passed on!
Your misspelling of “excited” made me chuckle. Just my odd sense of humor.
Ron, I just re-read my articles seven times before I realized you weren’t talking to me. HAHAHAHAHA
I have ventured out on Black Friday a few times; my wife has many times, including today. Never once have either of us seen fighting or riots or anything that was not polite (or semi-polite). Actually, I have never seen news reports of problems at any of the stores near us–including a super Walmart. I guess living in the Midwest amongst polite people helps.
Years ago–when they still did this–I went to REI on a couple of Black Fridays. The main draw was that they were handing out shopping bags with gift cards in them–a few of the cards had quite a bit of money on them. While waiting in line, I had pleasant conversations with those in front of me and behind me. When the doors opened, no on rushed the doors, but we moved quickly because it was bloomin/ cold. By the way, REI decided to stay closed on Black Friday a few years ago–and just made that decision permanent.
The stuff we venture out for is stuff we want or need, so electronics are not usually on our list. Back in the late 90’s was an exception–my wife’s family were gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas. My wife and her sisters decided to leave at O’Dark Thirty to shop. Best Buy had one of the first all-in-one printers as a Black Friday deal; a brother-in-law and I were interested in getting one, but not leaving that early. We got to to Best Buy later, and found our wives and their sisters standing around the car they took–with the engine running. The driver started the car, and got out to take her coat off and ended up locking them out of the car. My wife’s AAA card was expired or she did not have it; I had mine, so we used that to cover the cost of the locksmith. Saved the driver and her husband about $60. And to noone’s surprise, Best Buy had sold out of the printers, so my BIL and I left empty-handed. I enjoyed spending time with him, though.
Nowadays, Black Friday starts way too early for me–plus I can get what I am looking for online.
Tim, shopping online is the only way to fly. Plus, you don’t create an environment where people have to work the day after Thanksgiving. Time was, people in the south were considered very polite, but over the years that has changed for the worse.
I have friends down under, Tania. What I don’t understand about Ozzies I can certainly respect!