For December 14, 2014

Hey, that time of year is here again.  A time of year when we put Ferguson, EITs, and choke holds aside and extend goodwill (goodwill: a kind, helpful, or friendly feeling or attitude.) to everyone.   Yep, I’m talking about the Christmas Season.  Oops, I mean the Holiday Season.  By saying “Holiday Season” I’m showing goodwill towards everyone.  It’s politically correct to say “Holiday Season” and we all know how politically correct our political leaders are.

The Holiday Season use to start with the first Friday after Thanksgiving, a day when all the big stores like Wally Mart, Target, Best Buy, and all the others opened early, like two in the morning.  Back when this time of year use to be called the Christmas Season all these stores opened on that Friday morning at a reasonable time.  It was believed it gave people what they wanted: family time.  Wrong!  People don’t want to have down time with their relatives.  Gees look at Clark Griswold’s family get together for Christmas.  Who wants to spend a holiday that way when you can be out beating-up strangers you don’t even know just so you can get that perfect gift at a supposed discount?

I went out to an unnamed store and tried to buy a purse.  This was in the afternoon when supposedly all the crazies were done shopping and had gone home.  Darn, did I miss calculate.  I was in this store looking at purses and as I looked at the red-targeted price tag, three ladies rushed me.  One pushed me back and pinned me between her and the counter, one lady yanked the purse out of my hand, and the third lady tore off the price tag.  The purse wound up in their shopping cart with the three walking off like great hunters, exclaiming what a cool purse they found.  Ladies, I found the purse first.  They ignored me.  My dad trained me not to interfere with women in the middle of a sale. Son, he had said, you could get hurt, bad. I meekly looked for another purse. I didn’t find one, may be that explains the women attacking.

This holiday season shopping didn’t start on Black Friday, it started on Thanksgiving Day.  Back when we were allowed to call the Holiday Season Christmas, Thanksgiving Day was a day that families got together and ate themselves into oblivion.  (Actually, I had a mortician tell it was one of their busiest times of the year.)  But this year, Thanksgiving Day was the first day of shopping for the Holiday Season and, of course, our news media reported it a success, along with images of people beating up other people, pushing old ladies down as young people rushed the just opened doors.  One scene in an electronics section of a store looked like the Vikings offensive front line after the Green Bay Packers got done with them.  There were bodies lying everywhere with big screen sets also on the floors and fallen people clutching them for dear life.  Good god, what have big corporations turned us into?

Now at my crusty age, I just want to shop safely.  If I see a sale going on in a store, I walked away.  I’m no match for those crazed shoppers who will stop at nothing to get their loved ones just the right gift.  So, from me to all of you, MERRY CHRISTMAS! (OK, I’m not that old, Happy Holidays.)