I had never grasped what Thanksgiving meant for the Americans before I arrived in the US.
On Thurs evening of 2007 when I wandered around the streets of Manhattan, for the first time I noticed a difference. Restaurants closed, stores shut down and the only people on the streets were few tourists! Living in close proximity of Manhattan, most of my weekends are spent haunting these very same streets. I have always found a large mass of people walking around, sometimes actually suffocating me
So it struck - it is indeed a big deal! One day in the entire year when people travel long distances to be home with family. If you go to an airport on Wed night you are sure to see hoards of people all around rushing from one end to the other rushing to catch a flight.
So here I was with my hubby at 10 pm, no plan in our heads continuing to wander around aimlessly when we saw a group of people... No no!!! A queue of people with tents, sleeping bags and every possible equipment that would help them get thro' the night. Atleast 60 odd souls were comfortably camped on a sidewalk outside Bestbuy, one of the famous electronic stores.
Yes that's the other thing Thanksgiving is about. Have an early Thanksgiving dinner with family and get in the line for the Friday early morning door busters when the stores open at 5 am with an abundance of deals. You don't think, just grab lift and rush to purchase. A split sec lost means the object lost
So what did we do? Of course joined in the line! No preparation, nothing to keep us warm on that chilly November night. Just the company of each other and all the strangers who over the duration of the night became good friends. We shared jokes stories and even early morning coffee
But dawn broke out, the doors opened and none of our 'friends' were to be seen. It was a mad scene with everyone rushing into the store. Yes annually there are variety of incidents all over the country - stampede, shooting, use of pepper spray and more.
What did we pick? Two totally non required cameras, just because we got a good deal! Yes that's what it actually ends up being for most. "Is there a deal? well we gotta get it"
Have we made Black Friday early morning shopping a tradition? No! Not that part of Thanksgiving...
On Thurs evening of 2007 when I wandered around the streets of Manhattan, for the first time I noticed a difference. Restaurants closed, stores shut down and the only people on the streets were few tourists! Living in close proximity of Manhattan, most of my weekends are spent haunting these very same streets. I have always found a large mass of people walking around, sometimes actually suffocating me
So it struck - it is indeed a big deal! One day in the entire year when people travel long distances to be home with family. If you go to an airport on Wed night you are sure to see hoards of people all around rushing from one end to the other rushing to catch a flight.
So here I was with my hubby at 10 pm, no plan in our heads continuing to wander around aimlessly when we saw a group of people... No no!!! A queue of people with tents, sleeping bags and every possible equipment that would help them get thro' the night. Atleast 60 odd souls were comfortably camped on a sidewalk outside Bestbuy, one of the famous electronic stores.
Yes that's the other thing Thanksgiving is about. Have an early Thanksgiving dinner with family and get in the line for the Friday early morning door busters when the stores open at 5 am with an abundance of deals. You don't think, just grab lift and rush to purchase. A split sec lost means the object lost
So what did we do? Of course joined in the line! No preparation, nothing to keep us warm on that chilly November night. Just the company of each other and all the strangers who over the duration of the night became good friends. We shared jokes stories and even early morning coffee
But dawn broke out, the doors opened and none of our 'friends' were to be seen. It was a mad scene with everyone rushing into the store. Yes annually there are variety of incidents all over the country - stampede, shooting, use of pepper spray and more.
What did we pick? Two totally non required cameras, just because we got a good deal! Yes that's what it actually ends up being for most. "Is there a deal? well we gotta get it"
Have we made Black Friday early morning shopping a tradition? No! Not that part of Thanksgiving...
