The Friday After Edition: Hey, fellow old people, remember when network TV used to run cartoons in the morning for all the kids home from school on this day, but that was the only big deal about it?
The first thing that comes to mind on this Friday after Thanksgiving is how thankful I am that I don’t work in retail. My heart goes out to those people who have to be at the store at 2 a.m. or earlier for a pre-dawn opening.
Fortunately, my wife didn’t have to be at work until 9 a.m. I was surprised to see that the roads and even the parking lots of the big box stores weren’t packed more than usual. If there was any mob action going on here, it was done well before 8:45 a.m. when I drove up.
I would say it was more like an ordinary Tuesday but the traffic was much too sparse for that hour. There was still a holiday feel to the air, in particular, the hours of a holiday in which most people are locked in a stationary location, at their homes or visiting the homes of others, or working in the places that are open—whatever the case, they’re not on the road.
Of course, most people who have jobs have to work the day after Thanksgiving. So who does that leave to do all this combat shopping the news folks like to get all excited about? I’m not saying all these YouTube videos of hordes of barking, yapping, semi-humanity buckling glass storefronts and trampling the slow are staged. I’m not saying it’s all unicorns and rainbows at the shopping malls today, either (especially if you work there). But I realize this is very selective coverage of a story that has more in common with scary urban legend than actual news.
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| Actually, it was understood in 1978 that Dawn of the Dead was a flip-of-the-bird towards consumer culture. Makes a great meme, though, doesn’t it? It’s not like you haven’t seen this 15,000 times this week already. |
I can’t help wondering if this isn’t more propaganda made to make us hate ourselves, i.e., we’re so greedy, we’re so mean, we’re so stupid—throw in a couple of stories of people being nice to other people, working stiffs catching a lucky break, and you can call it fair and balanced news.
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| My pledge to you: this will be the only time I run something like this.After what I saw this morning, I reject the whole “Black Friday” self-hate trip. But, hey—ZOMBIES! Yay! |
I can’t speak for how it is where you are, but the day-after-Thanksgiving vibe is very subdued here on the north side of Colorado Springs. You bet I’m thankful for that.
Halloween seems so very long ago already. Which it was—this is one of those years that Thanksgiving comes late. As of Sunday, November is done. On comes December, and we’re soon to be cast back out into the gray, joyless void of January and February.
But here’s something else to be thankful for—that it’s still only the day after Thanksgiving, and the season is ours to lose. As the man and his old lady sang, “Let’s make it a good one/Without any fear.”
It’s bad enough the media tells you when to shop.
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