I got my oil changed today as planned. No site of the “scary” date guy to report. I took my daughter along because her entire class was raking leaves for charity, and she conveniently forgot to have me sign the permission slip to attend. Funny. So after the horrid hour wait at the mechanic’s, we did some shopping. The first year ever I’ve gotten early Christmas presents. It was amazing. Uncle Bob, check…Neighbor Sue, check…I was on a roll, and most importantly I had coupons!!
Serious coupons. I revel in the fact I have coupons. My daughter did a lot of eye rolling. (of course, she’s 13 years old. It’s an art at this point). But when the total came in, she was amazed. So amazed that she came home and reported my huge savings to everyone at dinner. Mission accomplished. 🙂 And I also made a decision that for some of the people on my list, they will receive a book and something else small. As I told my daughter who, again, didn’t buy into the whole “book” idea, that in fact, I was giving my sisters more than a gift…I was giving them a destination. A passport to transport to another place. That and a bottle of good lotion. Who doesn’t squee with a good bottle of lotion? I mean really.
Then I saw all the signs…the reason for the parody of Norman Rockwell’s famous Thanksgiving picture. Remember Thanksgivings long ago when your family congregated around the table…well the adults at one, and the tiny piggies at the other…and you ate. And ate, and ate. Because that’s what Thanksgiving was about. A bunch of eating…and sleeping…and yelling at the television for your football team to win. Or in my case, wishing the game would just end already. Theres’ something about the guy doing a play by play that really grates on my nerves. But anyway, I digress. If you were lucky, you stayed the night where the food was prepared. That way you could make a turkey sandwich when all the stuffing and cake made it out of the small intestine. Yay, room for more! If you weren’t so lucky, you went home and ate a bowl of cold cereal. Either way, this is what went down.
The signs I was referring to seeing today were advertising Black Friday deals. Beginning Thanksgiving day and going through to the following Friday. Hmmm… let me see. Black Friday…beginning Thursday, and ending in 7 days. What’s wrong with this picture? Now the times are such that after dinner everyone makes a beeline to the stores and shop until midnight. And then some, because evidently they reward the savvy shopper who can pull off staying all night with major door busters. And what about the people who have to work? You figure in retail that you’re going to get Thanksgiving and Christmas off. Even gas station attendants, for Pete’s sake. The world needs to shut down for at least one day a year, if not two.Not now! It’s sad indeed. What would Norman Rockwell have thought?
