Just Wait

The retail world is crazy and they have taken a time of wonder and beauty and turned it into something crass and vulgar.  Or at least they have tried.  No matter how much Mad Ave, Hollyweird and the rest of the entertainment industry try, it is still the fact that the reason we have this celebration is the incarnation of the Most-High Almighty Being.

That being said, I can also say that I am not really ready or willing to deck the halls, be holly-jolly or anything else.  Back in the good old days when I worked in retail in the mid to late 1970’s to early 1980’s, it was a different world.  The Wednesday before Thanksgiving was kind of slow because people were home getting ready for Thanksgiving, knowing that we would open Friday at 7 in the morning.  We usually opened early on that day and people were excited about the sales.  We closed at 5 Weekdays but by 3 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, it was quiet and we would hang the decorations around the store and put up the sale signs and everyone would go out feeling good.

Nowadays we have people being trampled to death for a toy.  A few years ago, when I worked at the Big Blue Box, I saw the pallets of various promotional sale items that were meant to be opened at specific times.  Vulturine beings hovered about, hoping the security guards might look away.  When the time came for the first set of pallets, some kind of fuzzy bedroom slipper that normally sold for $10 but at the magic hour would be $4, The security guards didn’t need their box cutters to open the pallet, the people pounced on it like craven, scavenging creatures, cackling and howling for their turn at the corpse.  If you ever want to see how low the depraved soul of humanity can get, observe a Black Friday sale at a Big Blue Box.  But don’t stand too close.

Having gotten that off my chest, (I vent this all the time everywhere there are Christmas decorations or music before the proper time, especially now, when we haven’t even had Halloween, let alone Givethanksing Day) I would like to share with you a holiday song that has become my favorite.  My friend Ashley told me to look this song up and said it was perfect for me, the way I rant and rave and carry on so about this.  And it is, really, one of my favorite songs for the season.

Luk 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

4 Comments

  1. I actually found it invigorating, the one Black Friday I worked at the Big Blue Box. It reminded me of midnight releases at Borders (or Harry Potter release parties in general). Granted, I absolutely hated the day before Christmas at the checkout, but that’s a horse of a different color.

    • Well, I think that starting Black Friday on Thursday Evening just feeds the greed. I don’t really compare the release parties with it, though. The release parties were usually themed and while some of the greed was there, I think people would wait in line patiently as long as they knew there’d be enough to go around. Some of the people on Black Friday, especially Black Friday on Thursday, really were a lot like animals. Maybe it’s that we saw it from different angles, the way eyewitness reports work.

      Day before Christmas is, I think pretty much the same in any retail setting, but people seem to feel that the Big Blue Box should be open all the time and nobody should ever have a day off.

  2. I say everyday should be Christmas, but only in the sense of giving. I agree wholeheartedly that marketing had gotten ridiculous and people have become overly crazy with shopping. I hate Black Friday at any store. I refuse to go unless I absolutely need an item and then I’d rather go without it.

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