Black Friday used to be something totally different than it is right now. I remember after eating on Thanksgiving, we would look at the newspaper ads for all the deals, and we circled exactly what we wanted. We would get up at 4 a.m. and wait in line at JC Penney just so we could get the Disney snow globe for that year. It was always my sister, my mom, my grandmother, my aunt, and myself. But then things changed all of the sudden.

Stores starting opening earlier and earlier each year until they started their Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving day. There were no more lines waiting for the store to open because we were busy spending as much time with family as we wanted, as other people should have been doing. We never bought Christmas gifts on Black Friday, so it was terrible we couldn't get to the stores when they opened, but it took the fun out of staying up late/getting up early to go shopping.

A week before Thanksgiving, we went to a store that already had their Black Friday sales up. A week before! I find it strange that they would do that because they would get less traffic on actual Black Friday. But then again, it creates less traffic making it safer for shoppers. I've heard of Black Friday horror stories where people fight over things and get trampled, but that has nothing to do with the event, but the shoppers themselves let themselves get too rowdy.

What I'm trying to say is, I used to dream about the day I would get to take my future daughter Black Friday shopping, and let her experience what I experienced as a child. However, that will never happen because the spirit of Black Friday has been killed, furthermore killing my childhood.