Black Friday Thoughts

Thanksgiving is now yesterday's memory, and thousands of people are celebrating the next holiday--Black Friday! Promoted mercilessly by retailers, this is the shoppers paradise, the day when Christmas shoppers show up in dark parking lots in the wee hours of the morning. All to get in line for the major bargains being offered.

My personal reaction to doing this is "No Way--Ever!" I can't imagine tip-toeing out of my bedroom and into the cold garage at 4 a.m or earlier. If I was in the car headed to the mall, I'd keep asking myself foolish questions which have even more foolish answers. And then I'd have to fight crowds and maybe even fight another woman who claimed the same item I wanted. Manners go out the door on a day like this, it's every woman for herself. And a few men, as well.

No, it's not my cup of tea, but I know people who look forward to this day all year. I think it's more of a game to them than about saving money. Not for all, of course, but for many.

My writer mind got to thinking about writing a short fiction piece about a Black Friday encounter. It might end up being a romance. Imagine telling your children years later that you met while racing through a department store aisle trying to get the last electronic whatever. Or it could easily become a mystery. How many people stepped over the dead body in aisle 16 in Walmart? How about a spy chase through Best Buy on Black Friday? Something in the paranormal or horror genre perhaps? Black Friday might be the perfect setting for any number of fiction stories.

It's late morning and the initial madness of the day is past, so I think I'll head out and see what things on my Christmas List I might find. Might be a few leftovers for the faint of heart like me.