Friday, November 23, 2012

Black Friday

It's time for my annual seriously depressing Christmas stories. When I first suggested the idea to friends several years ago, they thought I was crazy, but they've come to love them. My thought was that people who hate the holidays or become depressed should know that not everyone has a good time on December 25.  In time, even my writing pals who love Christmas came to find the stories funny.  

Today it was my turn to furnish a story for Black Coffee Fiction  http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com

I had the story outlined but I needed some more information on Black Friday, the shopping day after Thanksgiving.

I don't think I've ever shopped on Black Friday. For one thing, I don't believe in standing in long lines. There are better things to do with my time.  For another, I've found that whatever is on sale on Black Friday will be available again the week before Christmas and usually on sale then, too, but without the crowds.  

These days, my family doesn't really give presents. At my age, I have enough of everything and Chris and his family have more than enough money to buy whatever they want.  I make a big meal at Christmas and buy a gift for Evan, usually books.

So I had no idea what happens on Black Friday.  The answer was social media.  I asked my friends on Facebook for the worst things they had seen.  Teresa had a great story about a sixty year old woman crawling past people to get to whatever treasure she wanted.  Gary remembered a woman going berserk at the Appleton Menards a couple of years ago and found a cellphone video of it on YouTube.  

Then the Georgia Walmart experienced a shopping melee when shoppers went wild over a cellphone.

It was all I needed and after I threw in a Santa Claus, my story was written.







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