Less on Thanks, More on Taking

It is with deep sadness that I report the passing of the last family-focused American holiday.
Thanksgiving, the annual gathering of families to celebrate the gifts of bountiful harvests, blessings of the heart and the prosperity that enables a sumptuous feast for both the eyes and the body, was killed Thursday evening by America’s corporations.

My sister works for one of the major retailers as an office manager.  Four of her grandchildren, ranging from age 5 to 18, look forward for weeks for her annual effort in the kitchen to turn out traditional Thanksgiving fare with their finicky palates well in mind. 

Because she was scheduled to open the store at 11 p.m. on Thanksgiving night, everything had to be moved to an earlier time so that she could take a brief nap before heading in for a 10-hour shift.  She would be in charge of crowd control this time.

As anyone who cooks these major holiday meals knows, many hours are needed to turn out those spreads.  After working all day Wednesday, my sister spent most of the night cooking. By the time we started arriving around 2 p.m. Thursday, she was already exhausted.  Offers of help from me had been declined.  (Probably because I won’t cater to the whims of my grandnieces and grandnephews as much as she will) 

Retailers interviewed about the resistance to this intrusion on their employees’ family time claim customer demands as the reason for their decisions to open on Thanksgiving Day.  I call B.S. on that.  Customers pile into those stores for the price bargains – period.  The so-called Black Friday could start on Saturday or Wednesday or any other day; it is the deal they are seeking.  Corporations have created the Black Friday phenomenon to suit THEIR own need to turn red ink to black in one fell swoop. 

Bereaved survivors of the deceased include after-dinner conversation, football game banter and turkey sandwiches to go.