The Next 24 Hours

What are you planning for the next 24 hours?  Big meal? Small meal? Intimate gathering? Huge family meetup?  All those are acceptable answers. Going shopping at some point?  

Think that is harsh? Well believe me when I say dochebag wasn't the first descriptor I thought of. I scaled it back a bit. 

Now let me add that I'm materialistic, antisocial and the only thing better than sitting in my movie room surrounded by toys, films and games is knowing I'm amazing at finding deals and saving money on them.

But I'm also old enough to remember a small slice on time where Thanksgiving, and to a larger degree Christmas, turned my hometown in a ghost town. Didn't fill up the tank on Wednesday? Good luck finding a gas station open on the way to grandma's house. Forgot an important ingredient for the big meal? You better call around to the family who will be coming over because the stores aren't an option. With the exception of my Aunt being needed at the hospital during the holidays I knew I would get to see every local retaliative and a few distant ones because they were all off work and dedicated to being with family.

We've slowly chipped away at this holiday.  It is wasn't for this nation's love of food I almost think we'd eventually just think of today as simply another Thursday. It's certainly not about family as much as it used to be. I really am proud of the few stores that have promised to not open until Friday but that list is still so small that it is disheartening.  Maybe the list will get larger next year and little by little the trend will change.

The thing that confuses me are the people who say going shopping on Thanksgiving after the meal is a tradition .  Well your outing with your loved ones means loved ones stocking shelves and checking you out instead of these people doing any traditions at home with their families.  I'm not against stores making money or flooding my radio, Facebook feed or e-mail with sale announcements. If you are reading this you have a smartphone, tablet or a computer and most every store out there is offering you a way to stay home and till score some deals.  

I'm not an old fashioned type of guy but if you go shopping today it is impacting someone.  Someone is missing out on a family meal because their company feels a need to be competitive with countless other stores.  I'd love to see the list of stores closed today grow each year and in turn more families will get the quality time we seemed to take for granted these days.