Black Friday is more of a sport to me rather than an opportunity. I marvel at the hordes of people frantically collecting stuff that they have presumably researched and understand as bargains into their carts every Friday after Thanksgiving. It is truly fun to watch, especially if you have no other purpose in mind but to people watch and enjoy this holiday anomaly in human behavior. I contend that the most useful purpose of this for the public is the health benefit from exercising their bodies and minds after loading up the day before on turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie and God knows what else.
I have avoided Black Thursday until recently…..for obvious reasons. I mean who wants to get up at 5AM to go to Wal-Mart to buy a discounted GPS? Well that was me a few years back when I was visiting my sister on Long Island, and just by chance I missed going to the Wal-Mart a few miles away where one unfortunate patron was stampeded to death by the focused and unrelenting herd of salivating zombies about to invade the store when the doors opened that day.
This Black Friday was also truly memorable. While there were no deaths observed at least by me, there was an incredible display of patrons buying flat screened TV sets and carrying them out…..in their carts, in their arms, on their heads…anyway they could carry them. It reminded me of looters racing out of a riot infested downtown with their prizes. Little flat screen TV….ala 32 inches…went for a couple of hundred bucks, the plasma TV’s were almost given away….some 50 plus inchers for around $500. It was particularly striking to see such a variety of people carrying TV’s out of Sam’s Club…the young and old, tall and short, fit and unfit, obese and not so obese.
Of course, this begs the question of how many TV’s does a family need? The economy is bad but we still have enough room on our credit card debt ceiling to keep the interest draining from our meager remains. I have one flat screen TV I purchased a few years back…the same one now would cost about half the price ( I still have some old relics sitting somewhere in my house that I could not give away). But I know my kids have added to their TV collections…….my son has at least two TV’s…..and my daughter at least 3. And why do you need a TV in your bathroom, or why would you want a TV in your bedroom.....I am afraid to ask this of my children. I expect that like most people running down the street with their new flat screen TV’s, this will add to their collection of several, not likely their first, but the real question is the ultimate destination of where it will sit. Clearly there needs to be at least one room in the house that is sacred, but I can’t think of one off hand that has not been invaded by a TV. Not sure where I can go any more with the peace and quiet of my laptop, or iPad......and escape the relentless banter and background flicker of an increasing imposing face that has grown faster than the American waistline.
I hardly think that comment is a fair characterization of our house. while we do have three tvs, one is upstairs in Carter's room and has been turned on three times in that many years; one is downstairs in the play room and again has only been turned on occasionally; and one is upstairs in the living room behind a cupboard and few people even know it's there. in fact, we hardly ever watch anything on a tv screen--we mostly just have them there out of habit rather than use. instead, laptops and ipads make our more preferable screens, oddly enough. so it's not really about how many tvs anyone has but instead about how the flexibility of computer screens for entertainment use means any room's fair game (I think few people go to the bathroom without their iphones anymore, which says a lot).
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