The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally the beginning of the Christmas holiday shopping season. It has come to be known as “Black Friday”. Initially, “Black Friday” was a term police used to describe the traffic jams on this big shopping day. Long before the term was attributed to this one day of extravagance, it carried negative connotations (and still does, if you are like me, and hate to be at the Mall or in large crowds of crazed shoppers).

The stock market crash of 1929 began on what became known as “Black Friday”, a terrible day in October of that year. During the “Great Depression” that followed, prices of stock fell 40%, 9,000 banks went out of business and 9 million savings accounts were wiped out. Sound familiar?

The current depression is what most men go through if they are dragged out to the mall the day after Thanksgiving. The endless rows of clothing racks, upon clothing racks, the smell of burning plastic as credit cards are stroked through ATMs, and all those hours on your feet. Dizziness and hunger set in.

Whining can be heard throughout the various stores as families hustle to sale after sale. Fighting with other shoppers over the last, undented, sought after Christmas toy. Grab this one or you won’t find another one anywhere in town! The whining comes from the husbands, now tired, dragging their feet, Blackberry in hand, calculating losses.

Black Friday is a day made specifically for women. They enjoy shopping. They are good at it. They have had plenty of practice. Most women are probably unfamiliar with the term “Black Friday”. The day has come. The largest shopping crowds are in the stores, as early as 12am at some store openings. Some have camped out for hours before the doors opened.

If you can avoid any participation in this shopping frenzy, which is also the biggest payday of the year for pick-pockets, you should do so, whatever your reason. Black Friday, an ominous sounding term, a prediction of certain torture.  Good luck, men.

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