Holidays good time to stay home

I’m writing this on Black Friday and I’m not going anywhere.

Black Friday, New Year’s Eve, Labor Day and Memorial Day have become my favorite times to stay home.

Just to be ornery, I don’t intend to order anything online today, either.

Luckily, my wife of many years feels the same way.

We walked this morning up to a bridge over Interstate 40. It was early and the lanes carried lots of semi-trailer trucks and a few cars getting a head start on long drives, either back home or maybe on business already.

Traffic wasn’t bad, just a little heavier than normal for 7:30 a.m. We both were glad we weren’t going to risk losing our sanity or thousands of dollars in automotive hardware to save what we might spend on gas on heavily advertised but dubious bargains at big stores in Amarillo or Albuquerque.

My forward-thinking wife has done most of our Christmas shopping, anyway.

In fact, not feeling obligated to join the Black Friday frays is among the things we are both thankful for, along with the health of our children and grandchild, and in my case, four brothers, their spouses, their children and their spouses and now two grand-nephews, all healthy.

I am certainly not as thankful for President Donald Trump’s leadership as he is. His own leadership led his list of things he’s thankful for.

I was more thankful that he could leave us alone for three hours on the fairways of Mar-a-Lago.

Since, according to a Pew study, I am officially old this year, I can think of Black Fridays the way they used to be, which, come to think of it, is pretty much how they are now. I have avoided Black Fridays for decades, except one when I worked in retail, which was crazy.

My best Black Fridays were when the family was all together and we spent the day lounging and nibbling at the turkey carcass after a day of helping in the kitchen, watching football, eating too much and talking loudly because of both the TV and the beer we would start on early.

I don’t think any of us drank at home as much as we did when we all got together.

Black Friday was almost more of a holiday than Thanksgiving.

I hope that if you travel to Amarillo or Albuquerque this holiday season, you find what you’re looking for.

Some people don’t mind crowds, and if this is your idea of fun, more power to you.

My wife and I are enjoying another quiet day. Since it was just the two of us, we have a lot of turkey to be creative with. I’m happy to note that our bird did not die in vain. It was one of our best, probably because we didn’t have company to please.

The usual stuff has started again by the time you read this, and that’s soon enough.

In the meantime, we’ll put up our Christmas tree and a few more decorations and let the holiday shopping crush happen somewhere else.

Happy holidays and I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Day as much as we did.

Steve Hansen writes about our life and times from his perspective of a retired Tucumcari journalist. Contact him at:

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