So That Others May Shop...

Have we really gotten to be that self-centered?

When I was a kid, (eyeball roll), almost everything was closed on Sundays and holidays. There were, and still are some, 'blue laws'. Blue laws prohibit certain activities on Sundays. Some time in the late 70's, some of these bans were lifted and various establishments started to conduct business on Sundays and holidays. All for the sake of the almighty dollar.

Sunday used to be reserved for family. It was a day of rest. We went to church in the morning and gathered with family the rest of the day. We went to our grandparent's house where we had the opportunity to play with our cousins while the adults talked about whatever adults talked about. That's why I know my cousins. It's why I know cousins of cousins. Even after our grandparents passed, we still got together on Sunday's with family. We did the same thing for holidays.

While I don't like laws that try to dictate morality, they generally don't work anyway, I do think that the easing of blue laws gave us an excuse to start ignoring an extremely important aspect of our life - family.

Instead of spending the day breaking bread with family, we haul our kids to yet another activity, soccer, baseball, whatever. Sunday has become a day to catch up on those things we didn't get done during the week. Sunday has become just another day of the week of running errands. When did it become ok to schedule ballgames on Sunday anyway? I know what my mother would have said. "Too bad. You'll just have to miss this game."

But we've gone even a step further now. Again, for the sake of the almighty dollar, we have stores who are going to open their doors for shoppers on Thanksgiving Day to get in a couple of extra hours of Christmas shopping. Really?

That means that some poor souls have to forfeit their Thanksgiving with their families so the self-centered, in-debt-up-to-their-eyeballs, I-just-can't-get-it-done-without-these-couple-of-extra-hours, people can get a 'great deal'. Give me a break. Can't you wait until a respectable hour on Friday? Isn't 6 am Friday early enough to start your Christmas shopping?

The Santa Claus magic should have gone away when you became an adult. There's nothing wrong with kids, even teenagers, thinking, on Christmas morning, that all that stuff magically appeared overnight with the help of little elves. But do you realize that doesn't happen in the stores? Someone has to be there to stock and restock the shelves. Someone has to ring up your order so you can run that over-used credit card through the little machine. Someone has to watch the mob come through the door and be there to help your fellow shopper up when you run them over trying to beat them to the coveted item the marketers said you just have to buy or life just won't go on.

All that takes a lot of someones. Those someones have to be at work well before the doors of the store open to you. Those someones are going to try and cram in a quick Thanksgiving and get some sleep before heading off to work.

Yes. I know there are a lot of people who work holidays. I was one of them. There are jobs where it is critical for people to work the holidays, hospitals, fire and police departments to name a few. And others not so critical. But can we keep it to a minimum? Must we add retail stores?

I've never been shopping on black Friday and really don't understand the hysteria. There's always been more than enough things in the store to buy in the middle of December and somehow guys manage to find stuff on Christmas Eve. Besides, internet shopping means I can have a cup of coffee in hand while wearing sweats and I'm not infringing on someone else's family time no matter when I want to do my shopping.

So this year, when I venture out to the brick and mortars, it will be Sears or JCPenny's which are resisting this ridiculous trend, somewhat. And there's always the little mom and pop places that usually have incredible customer service. And if for some really weird reason I find the shelves empty at those places because I didn't show up in time, there's always the orange, peppermint stick, and nuts as a back up. Oh, and the turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade noodles, pies....

.....and we'll eat too much and talk about how we didn't miss out on Black Thursday over a game of Euchre.