Black Friday. The Shopping Day Heard Round the World. My mother explained to me Black Friday was the day merchandisers sold enough stock to put them in the black. When that didn’t make sense, she explained that when you owe money, you’re in the red. When you have more money than you owe, you’re in the black. Aha. It then made sense.
My mother never went Black Friday shopping that I can remember. Because she stayed close to home, and couldn’t get around very well in the winter weather, she shopped from catalogues. Mom would have been astounded by Amazon and it’s two-day shipping.
Every October, we would receive a two-inch thick catalogue from Sears and Roebuck, and another from J.C. Penney. As kids, we poured through them, marking all the cool toys we planned to add to our lists for Santa. Mom poured through them, made a list, waited for the milk check from Kraft to arrive (that’s a paycheck for a dairy farmer) and then she would “order Christmas,” as she called it. She started early, because it took weeks to receive her packages.
Did you know that in the early 1900’s you could order a home from the Sears catalogue? They had more than 350 designs. The kits were delivered by boxcar, and the homeowner assembled it himself, usually with help from neighbors in “barn raising” style. An estimated 70,000 of them were built. I haven’t searched Amazon for homes, but I wouldn’t be surprised if IKEA offered them, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the pictogram instructions were a nightmare.
Even though Mom’s mode of Black Friday shopping differed greatly from the circus going on across the country today, it accomplished what we all hope to accomplish - to make Christmas special for the people we love. I think I’ll stay away from stores today. I’ll wander through some online catalogues with Mom’s perspective and see what treasures I can find.
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