I'm afraid to title this American Greed - Part II - but I will!

Well everyone, I'm a little bit overwhelmed by the American Greed post. I've never received that many comments and gosh-darnit it had to be when I decided to blow off steam. Here's what happened....I was sitting at my laptop looking at blogs and watching the news. A young man was on the news, and I probably got about half of the conversation because I was reading your blog instead of paying attention! Apparently, he works at Target and he decided to get a petition signed because he was upset that he had to go to work on Thanksgiving Day. Target opens at midnight, therefore he had to be there before midnight. I found out later he got 190,000 signatures and it made national news. I mistakenly thought they were going to be open during the day, but they weren't. However, a lot of other establishments decided to open ON Thanksgiving Day and it made front page news in our paper today.

I was not talking about not shopping on Black Friday. That's what Black Friday is all about. I was talking about not shopping ON THANKSGIVING...or any holiday.

There were a lot of places open today, ON Thanksgiving. More than ever before. My concern is if we continue on this path, Holidays and families will be forgotten. They almost already are.


We went to see my Shug's Mom tonight at the rehab facility. I'm thankful the people at the therapy center were there taking care of her, and I appreciate them. I appreciate all of the people who work in professions that require them to work Holidays because of the sick, or because our safety is at stake. And here's the thing....you don't have to work at a store, a restaurant, a hospital or a fire department to have to work on holidays. I remember a story my cousin told me one time when they farmed and raised pigs. She would take care of the babies being born. Well as luck would have it, one of those "damn pigs" started labor on Christmas Day and she spent hours out there with those piglets instead of inside with her family.


I think we are all on the same page when it comes to Holiday's. We are all grateful for people who work in service places such as hospitals, fire departments and such. But at the same time we feel sorry for those that have to work and are not with their families. And let's not forget our servicemen and women. And shopping is not a necessity on a holiday.


Now, lest you see me out shopping and call me a hypocrite!!! I do go out on Black Friday. I do not go out on Thanksgiving Day. And that, again, was the point I was making.
My Sister and I started shopping on Black Friday 20 years ago. But at that time we didn't 'get it'. I had gone through a divorce right before the Holiday season and I was very down. VERY down. She was away at college, my Brother just moved about an hour away and it was a hard time in my life. She came to my apartment the day after Thanksgiving and we went shopping THAT AFTERNOON! We walked around looking for all of these deals we heard about and they kept looking at us like we were from outer space and said, "That was this morning." She did, however, win a HUGE stocking full of fun stuff! The next year we went early. Then we started looking at the ads and we finally 'got it'. You get up and go early in the morning. We never wait in any line days beforehand. (I think it's stupid - I did however wait in line a couple of hours one time to get tickets to a John Mellencamp concert) My Sister and I always go to Penneys to get the Free Disney Snow Globe to add to our collection. From that point on we wander around aimlessly with our coupons trying to find something we might need to buy. It's more of a social thing for us. We see people we haven't seen in years, or just see once a year, and we chat. We laugh and make it a fun day together. We don't get mad, we don't yell at clerks, we don't push and shove. My first job was working at a department store, so I treat clerks with respect.


Seriously, this day has just turned into a fun tradition for us, but it does not take away from family time. It adds to it. And really, that's what it's all about. Family.



Peace,


Cindy Bee

Cheri - I knew what you meant....it was hard for you to leave your family to go to work. Even though you didn't want to work on Christmas day, you did so with a caring heart.

Susanne - Did you write a book on Handmade crafty stuff? A lot of us are Handmade kind of peeps....how do we get a look at this book? (and you are right about the flu. I've had it the last two years on Thanksgiving weekend!)