I can’t get over the news clips from Black Friday. Not just this Black Friday, but every one I can ever remember. This has absolutely no appeal to me whatsoever. I truly believe I would rather go to the dentist and have a tooth filled.
People camp out, in all sorts of weather, lining up in front of stores across the land. Once the doors open, they rush inside, fight and scrap for the almighty discount on an earbud, or an electric toothbrush. Wall to wall shoppers, woozy in the head, foamy at the mouth, all in the name of sale price, the Golden Ticket.
I believe that a penny saved is a penny earned, but I doubt Ben Franklin envisioned people carting off plasma TVs to save $20, but spend $3,000.
Yet, I know the masses love this day, like some sort of quest for the Arc of the Covenant.
With all that said, I realize part of the problem is me. I am not a shopper. I simply don’t like to go to stores and mill around, looking at sweaters and bed sheets and such. The day the internet was born, and gave a foreshadowing glimpse into the world of online retail, I became a liberated woman. Freed from the throes of Shopping Malls and Discount Stores.
I can remember placing my first online order. I was in my office at work, probably somewhere around the year 2000. I don’t remember what I bought, but I can still feel the nervous sensation of punching in my credit card information, and holding my breath until the next screen appeared: “Your purchase has been confirmed.” Waiting for the package to actually arrive was an entirely different matter.
But it came. And that was the end of my aisle-walking, and dressing rooms.
It was expected that Americans would spend around $87 Billion today, this Black Friday of 2019. Billion. Eighty-seven of them.
Black Friday has been around for a long, long time. For centuries, the word “black” has been used to describe days on which calamities occurred. And with that , many events have been described as “Black Friday.”
One of the first Black Fridays was back 150 years ago, or so. It was also called the Panic of 1869. This occurred when financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk took advantage of their ties with the Grant Administration. They were making an attempt to corner the gold market. President Grant learned of this tom foolery. He then ordered the Treasury to release a large supply of gold, which halted the run. But, it caused prices to drop by eighteen percent. Fortunes were made and lost that day. Even the president’s own brother-in-law, Abel Corbin, was ruined.
But in context to Thanksgiving, “Black Friday” first described the day after, because so many people were calling in “sick” at work on that Friday. That started in 1951 or so.
From there it kind of morphed into describing the heavy motor and pedestrian traffic – the general congestion – in metro areas, during the 1960s. Finally, in 1975, it shape-shifted again, designating Black Friday as the busiest shopping day of the year. It didn’t go mainstream until the late-80s, early-90s.
No matter what we call it, or how it came to be, it seems that Black Friday is now a mainstay in the Thanksgiving Tradition for more than 85% of Americans. I was not one of them.
I enjoyed my day working around the house. Cleaning and puttering. I didn’t spend one little penny today. And, while I don’t have a brand new TV to show for it, the one we do have has been wiped clean of all incidents of long-range-gravy-splatter.
If you were one of the Black Friday Shoppers, I give you the Badge of Shopping Honor. But I bet you are one of those Elf on a Shelf people too. And that, we shall discuss, another fine day.
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Too many people spend money they earned..to buy things they don’t want..to impress people that they don’t like.
— Will Rogers
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Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
— Epictetus
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A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.
— Yogi Berra
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