Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 22920 – 1007

Here’s the haps:

I have had this blog for 18 years although there was a time of major depression when I didn’t post on it at all until I reached a dark epiphany about myself which you can read about here if you’d like. Anyway, during that time, from back when it was a web log then a ‘blog until now when it’s a blog, I have ranted and raved about various topics, reserving to myself the right to write about whatever I wanted. One of those topics has been holidays.

When I first started in retail in the mid-seventies and on into the early eighties there was an unspoken rule that everyone followed, the Christmas decorations didn’t go up and the sale tags didn’t go on until the Wednesday night before we celebrated Thanksgiving. EVERYTHING was closed on Thanksgiving day and there were no convenience stores in our town. If you forgot something or needed something you had to call around and see if anybody that was coming over had what you needed or you did without. We (retail workers) mentally prepared ourselves for opening the store a few hours early and being non-stop busy for the whole next couple of days.

There were lines. Not just the lines of people waiting for your doors to open, but boundaries, lines in the sand if I may use the term. Now, with radio stations playing full-time Christmas music starting November the First and businesses having “Black Friday in September” sales, I do find myself feeling old and curmudgeonly and longing for those simpler days sometimes.