Combat Shopping

Combat Shopping

For as long as I can remember, it has been a tradition that Mama, my two sisters, and I go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. This marathon day used to drive me to distraction. That was in the old days when we all rode to town together. My sisters gave new meaning to “shop till you drop,” and every shopping day left me with throbbing feet and an ill disposition. I also accomplished very little. We never got started as early as I wanted to. Also, this was in the days before cell phones, and so we all had to stay together as much as possible or arrange to meet up (which never worked since someone was always late). Despite our best efforts, we were always losing each other and spent much of our day just trying to find one another. My sisters can go into a store and not come out again until two hours later. This invariably happened right before lunch time. I would get hungry and impatient, and they felt like I was being the bossy big sister. We would finally all go eat at Morrison’s and, while eating, try to figure out who owed who for what that had been bought that morning. (We often buy our own gifts and then let someone else buy them from us!) After refueling, it was back to the mad holiday rush. The lines were extremely long at all the registers because everyone was at the same stores; there weren’t that many options back then. This day would last into the night until I thought I was going to collapse right there in the store. The worst part was, I never finished or even came close to finishing my shopping.

It is so much better now that I drive my own vehicle. I get out early while the real bargains, the door busters, are still in effect. (This year I left the house at 5:30 am.) By the time the rest of the crew meets up with me around about 11:00, I have already done much of my shopping. We eat at Rafferty’s at a decent hour and I always enjoy their salad and delicious potato soup. When I get tired, I go home. Then Doug and I enjoy a big plate of Thanksgiving leftovers, and afterwards I can put my feet up and relax, vegging out in front of the TV. This year’s trip was actually fun! I came home at the end of the day feeling great about how much I had accomplished.

The only bad part is it all seems rather mercenary. I don’t know how to stop Christmas from being so commercialized; I know that isn’t what it’s all about. That is why I like Thanksgiving. That is a day when we are grateful for what we already have instead of thinking about what we want. One thing we have tried to do is go out of our way to give to those in need at Christmas. That makes me feel so much better about the getting part. There are certainly plenty of opportunities to be generous this time of year!