BLACK FRIDAY

Old Trunks admires all of you who have the fortitude to go shopping on this day. There are two days that are tough on retail people: Sidewalk bazaars and the day after Thanksgiving. Please be kind to the clerks, humans aren't built to take the buzz of shoppers for those 12 hour days. It is like volunteering at a polio vaccine site, you learn to smile and look at the customer and walk the bumpy road and when you get home, all of it is a blur and you haven't one specific incident to cherish, unless, of course, it happened early in the morning with a little time between customers.

But we don't live in a service oriented retail realm now, do we? We don't go into Elaine's or the Fashion Shop and be asked if there is something special the customer is looking for and no one has asked me in decades if I had an idea in mind. In the 10 years I have shopped at Herberger's I was asked once if I needed help finding something.

I have trouble with Christmas buying and I have since I became an adult. There is no reason to fight it, landslides of gifts are the trend. I was raised with one gift for Christmas from my parents and always thought that was more than enough. Grandparents gave us each 200 pennies they had saved throughout the year. We could find a lot of things to do with those pennies! Grandma Mae nearly always made something for me, which I thought was THEE BEST. The little dolls with crochet clothing are still with me; one is bald and the other one's eyes roll back in her head. Yet, they are still an example of precious.

I wonder if it is all about income. I wonder if ingenuity and improv has left the building. These are times many don't have extra; it isn't the first time, nor will it be the last. People forget they can buy or make gifts throughout the year. And one by one, month by month, can fill out that list of gifts for people they hold dear. Certainly they have a box somewhere for the treasures to be stored.

Because of the way my brain is wired, I can remember nearly all the gifts I received as a gift at Christmas from my parents. Yes, they were purchased. Maybe it is a generation thing like white collar--Blue collar when one group, like my grand parents made things, and my parents bought things, and my generation makes things.....well, you get the picture.

Perhaps you have filled out your list. Perhaps you are working toward it and have an idea. Maybe you are all wrapped and under the tree and on this day, you are sending out your cards, if you are a card sender.

But if you are not, then consider some ingenuity and some improv by lightening your heart and keeping your wallet a little heavier.

Happy Black Friday and God Bless the retail clerks who look like a deer in the head lights.

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