Black Friday: What a Deal!

Did you venture out for the Great Black Friday Hunt of 2011?  Do you know the origin of the term “Black Friday”?  It comes from the Latin Fridicus Blackitus and refers to a day where crazed hunters and gatherers venture out before dawn, armed with credit cards, pepper spray, and attitudes, fighting to beat other such hunters and gatherers to things they don’t need, purchased with money they don’t have, and sometimes designated to be given to people they don’t even like, all the while congratulating themselves for all the money they are saving (at least until the credit card bills start arriving).  This definition was brought to you by Dr. Gerry’s Dictionary of Totally Made Up Stuff.

Actually, I found the following information on Wikipedia (so you KNOW it is all completely accurate).  “The day's name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.  Use of the term started before 1966 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black".”

I am so excited to tell you how much I saved on Black Friday deals this year.  How much?  So glad you asked.  I saved all of it!  That’s right.  I saved sleep by not getting out of bed until after 9:00.  I saved stress by not fighting the crowds.  I saved money by … wait for it … not spending it!  

I honestly cannot imagine a more painful way to spend the day after Thanksgiving (or pretty much any other day).  I don’t even like to go to our local Wal-Mart on Saturdays.  But that’s just me.  If you were out there on Black Friday, I hope you had a great time and that you didn’t spend all the grocery money.

Our family did have a special acknowledgment of Black Friday.  For almost the entire 27 years that Mrs. Sweetie and I have been married, we have spent Thanksgiving with her parents.  It is such a part of our family’s culture that our grown children don’t want to go anywhere else but Mamaw and Papaw’s for Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving 2009 was a tough one for us because Mamaw had passed away in March, but we held it together and made the most of it, as much for Papaw’s sake as anything else.

We gathered again for Thanksgiving 2010 with a new day dawning.  We enjoyed a wonderful family Thanksgiving.  We gathered again on Black Friday for a special celebration.  I had the honor of performing a living room wedding ceremony for Papaw and Elsie.  Both in their 80’s.  Both widowed and lonely for about 20 months.  Both having had the joy of good marriages and companionship.  We talked that day about how Elsie wasn’t replacing Mamaw and how Papaw wasn’t replacing Cecil.  We just all got someone new to love.  

None of us, including Papaw and Elsie, remember the actual date of that wedding.  We just know that it was the day after Thanksgiving.  They say that the day after Thanksgiving is easier to remember than November the whatever, so they are going to use that day as their anniversary.   

Papaw says he got a pretty good Black Friday deal last year.  We all agree.  Black Friday, 2011 was a great anniversary reminder to all of us that our lives really do matter to God.

What a deal!