I used to work at a department store. I would be stationed at the cash register or be assigned to pick up clothing from the dressing rooms and place each piece in its respective rack on the sales floor. I remember fearing the holidays at work; I knew that I would be scheduled to work at some ungodly hour or be asked to work on the holiday in question.
Thanksgiving was always the worse. The holiday itself is one of my absolute favorites; families from church, people who have come to be my second family, show up at my house and we all gather around a long table to eat food everyone has prepared. There are laughs and shouts and rolls get tossed at each other -- it sounds strange, but Thanksgiving has always been part of my favorite memories. And yet, working in retail always seemed to ruin Thanksgiving. I knew I'd have to rush out of the house as soon as I finished eating because I had to be at work.
While Black Friday has always been a day I never understood. Growing up, my mother and the other moms from my second families would wake up early, shop all morning, and stop for some breakfast together before continuing to their respective homes to stash holiday gifts. While I thought the overall idea of Black Friday was good (huge sales so that people could get Christmas shopping done early), I never understood why it had to happen early on Friday morning and now in the early afternoon of Thanksgiving day.
On Thanksgiving we spent the day smelling the different aromas of homemade dishes while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade sing on the television. We would all join hands and say grace and thank God for the ways He had blessed us that year. We would smile at the fact that we were able to get together with one another and spend time with each other and enjoy the company of our family. And yet, only a few hours later, stores across America open at 6pm and force their employees to leave the dinner table early and kiss their relatives goodbye before the day of thanks is even over. Hours after saying thanks we rush to greedily snag deals and products away from others. Why does the CEO of department stores get to stay in with his family on Thanksgiving while his employees rush around the store floor, stomachs still full of turkey, trying to fold clothing that has been tossed on the ground by rushing shoppers searching for a certain size?
It's just not fair. That is a phrase I HATE to use. I've always been raised to understand that life in its entirety is not fair and that the world will never treat you the same way it treats others. But that doesn't stop me from wishing that for at least one day a year we could all be treated the same; for one day a year, everyone can sleep in, bake a pie, hug their family, and not think about having to leave the festivities early in order to get to work on time.
