<font color="#0033CC">GUEST COLUMN:</font> Of Black Fridays past

By Jim Holmes

Well, I hope you survived Black Friday and you found the experience tolerable, if not enjoyable.

It is funny how Black Friday has become almost like a holiday unto itself. For many of us, the anticipation of getting a great deal rivals the anticipation of getting a particular gift on Christmas morn. I know some families who get up on Thanksgiving Day -- and with the Macy's Parade blaring in the background --study the newspaper and TV ads with the intensity of a biblical scholar analyzing the Dead Sea Scrolls. Then over turkey, they join with relatives in plotting when they will arise on Friday morning and who will camp outside Best Buy and who will brave the throng at Wal-Mart.

All this to buy an item that, by this time next year, will most likely be taken for granted, shelved and gathering dust, or broken.

Another seemingly modern wrinkle to the holiday season is the now annual "to die for" gift for kids. I met a granddad last week who planned to be at Wal-Mart at 2 a.m. in order buy this year's must have gift: the Zhu Zhu hamster. I've never seen one, but based on what I learned on the Internet, they are little stuffed replicas of the rodents and somehow they interact with the kids. They are supposed to retail for under seven bucks each, but I found folks on eBay bidding well over a hundred dollars in an effort to obtain a set of four! I wonder what they would pay me for that rat in my chicken coop? It favors a hamster and lord knows, I've been interacting with it for weeks now.

I don't remember Christmas fads like that when I was a kid back in the 40s and 50s. Of course, we were raised by folks who survived the Great Depression, meaning that while Santa would bring toys, there was a practical side to him that meant gifts of clothing. It always worried me how Santa knew my size. I couldn't help but wonder if some elf was assigned to visit and go through my drawers ... and if that was the case, I knew with my luck he would have come on the day Mama used the flyswatter on me.

And I'll tell you -- for a kid, heck for an adult -- there is nothing quite as disappointing as opening a brightly wrapped package only to discover it contains new underpants.

As far as Black Friday was concerned, back then I don't think anyone ever heard the term. That didn't mean we didn't look forward to the day after Thanksgiving. For those of us who lived out in the sticks, we were in for a daylong adventure that began with flagging down a Greyhound bus and riding into the big city in order to visit a department store or two. Perhaps the most memorable part of the trip was looking at the brightly decorated and -- for us at the time -- highly animated window displays. There we'd see replicas of Santa's Workshop or perhaps a Christmas morning scene. By today's standards, I'm sure those displays were primitive, but back then they mesmerized us.

For our family, department stores trips normally focused on what could be found "on the cheap" in the bargain basement. But at Christmas time, it also meant a tour of the entire store made necessary because old Saint Nick was up on the third floor in the toy department. Of course, the visit with him was the highlight of my day. Once on his lap, I'd shyly mutter my list of toys ... tickled to be in his presence, but also anxious for the experience to end. Otherwise, I might have found the courage to tell him, "Please Santa, more toys! I like jeans with holes in the knees and honestly, I can get by with one pair of underpants. Heck, unless Mama catches me, I only change them once a week anyhow."

Jim Holmes lives in Live Oak.

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