The Progressive Erosion of Americanism

I remember as a young boy, holidays such as Memorial Day, Labor Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter meant something to people. There were parades on Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Independence Day and they were holidays, not JUST for government employees and schools, but nearly ALL retail establishments and other businesses were closed on those days to celebrate. Thanksgiving Day, you would have been hard-pressed to even find a gas station open. There was no WaWa or 7-11 back then and no chain drug stores like Walgreens with 24-hour 7-day-a-week hours.

Most businesses were closed the entire four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Even though retailers were open on Black Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, the hours were still sane. On Black Friday stores opened at the normal time and they were closed by 9 PM just like any other Friday. On Saturday they were closed by 6 PM, and on Sunday most of them were closed for the entire day. Not even the supermarkets were open on Sunday. We just had a little corner general store that was open on Sunday mornings to get gas and the Sunday paper after church, and maybe milk and bread if you needed it. If I had behaved myself all week, I might even get an treat of an ice cream bar, and ice cream sandwich, or a YooHoo soft drink.

On the holidays that occured in the summertime, my family was sure to have a picnic somewhere if the weather was nice, and if not we still had a family gathering inside. When we had picnics, they might be at our house, my grandmother's house, or at one of my aunt's and uncle's house, or we would have the family gathering at a place called Pardee's Beach along the Delaware River near Shawnee, Pennsylvania.

For Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter we always had a family gathering too, but mostly they were always inside except for having an Easter Egg Hunt for the little kids at whoever's house we happened to be at to celebrate the holiday. I have fond memories of all those times, but it seems that with the current progressive erosion of those American traditions, my children and grandchildren will never have those opportunities.

Now, all those holidays that I cherished as young boy seem to be nothing more than excuses for retailers to run huge sales and lure people away from spending time with their families to go out and spend money on things that they don't need and can't afford. Black Friday is a shining example of how excessive corporate greed has gotten totally out of hand. It was all fine when Black Friday was just Friday, but now it's been pushed into Thanksgiving Day taking more and more time from people to spend with their families. It's time that we, as Americans, stand up against those retailers and stand up for what is right. We need to REFUSE to shop at retail outlets on Black Friday.

I applaud those several thousand Blah-Blah Mart people who have vowed to strike in protest working on Thanksgiving. It should be a violation of FEDERAL LAW for any retailer (unless they serve a necessary function), to be open on Thanksgiving Day and they should all be penalized by massive fines and if they refuse to comply, the corporate money mongers that pull the strings should all be put in prison for violating the rights of American workers to BE Americans. Because, being forced to work on Thanksgiving is most certainly UN-AMERICAN, and those money mongers should be ashamed if they call themselves Americans.

The only way that the American people can make a change to the thought process of this out-of-control corporate greed is if we collectively force these retailers to close on Thanksgiving Day. How, you may ask, can we do that?

#1 Keep yourself and your family out of any retail establishment on Thanksgiving Day.

#2 Forward this article to all of your friends and relatives.

#3 Post links to this article on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Delicious, and any other social network you that you might be associated with.

#4 Encourage your friends and relatives to also post links to this article on any social networks they are associated with.

#5. Do all your Black Friday Shopping at http://santastoolsandtoysworkshop.com You can find nearly any item anyone might need or want there and you can check out securely.

If we all stand together, collectively, we can make Thanksgiving a dismal day for retailers who decide to be open. So, let's not go shopping on Thanksgiving. Let's all spend the day with our families eating turkey and stuffing and actually having meaningful conversations instead of wasting our time and money making corporate fat cats we don't even know more wealthy than they already are.