I Want to Go Shopping on Black Friday!
We are not participating in Black Friday shopping, in spite of the many pleadings of my children.
Many years ago, long before I had children, I remember saying, “I am going to be part of this experience!” And I hopped in my car and headed out into the world.
I can’t remember what I wanted to buy, but with all the hoopla on TV, I’d thought Black Friday would be great fun. And as a 20-something with nothing better to do, I sure didn’t want to miss out.
I got onto the road and sat in traffic. Then I sat in more traffic. Then … I sat in traffic. The closer I got to the mall, the longer I sat. And I live in an area with lots of malls, so there were plenty of choices for our overpopulated county.
By the time I was close enough to see the mall, I sat at the same red light for at least 10 cycles. It was a left-turn light, and no one had bothered to set it for “extra traffic,” so the little green light would pop up, allow maybe two cars through, then disappear.
It was at about this time that I realized I didn’t really need to shop on Black Friday. I got out of the left-turn lane, drove past the mall and all its incoming traffic, and went home.
With the stores opening – geez – on Thanksgiving DAY now, there are commercials inundating every show on TV, every website, and the radio station – all of which Dylan and Shane have seen.
They’re intrigued by the thought of running out and buying something – anything – even though they have no jobs, little saved allowance money, and few people in their lives who require a gift from them.
Still, I have heard this regularly for the past few weeks:
“I want to go shopping on Black Friday! Can we go shopping on Black Friday?”
“No,” I said. I don’t bother to tell them why. Someday, I’m sure, they’ll learn this for themselves.