A Modern Thanksgiving Tale

Black Friday Revenge

by the reluctant traveler

While my wife silently chuckled inside and simultaneously pointed I was driving too fast and too close, I was wondering why Black Friday sales brought retail stores out of the red if all the products were reduced in price; because, if that is the case why don’t retailers keep their items on sale all year long?

On our way back from spending time with relatives over the Thanksgiving Holiday which by the way went amazingly well this year, my wife wanted to stop at the Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem to look for a purse that she saw advertised.  I said nothing even though this was our second stop on our Black Friday drive back to Tennessee.   So, I set the GPS on my android and we found ourselves at the mall and right in front of Dillards, exactly where she wanted to be.  She shopped while I remained in the car reading the latest news on my phone.  About 45 minutes later, she called me from her cell asking me to come and get her as she was tired.  I asked her what was wrong (?) and  she replied nothing so I thought perhaps a stranger was bothering her and left the car to join her and escort her back in safety.  Not 15 feet from the curb, I saw my wife standing on the sidewalk, with a look of amazement as to why I was not driving the car up to get her as she really was tired and apparently no one was bothering her.  I could actually see her chuckling inside as we walked back to car to continue our trip home.

The night before, Thanksgiving, we were invited to have dinner with my sister’s husband’s side of the family at his sister Faye’s house not too far from where our mother lived in Chapel Hill which is who my wife and I were actually visiting.  This invitation to another house was unexpected.  During the brief cocktail party type reception, one of my sister’s husband’s relatives came up to me and said, “are you the charming, rich one from New York City or the other one,” to which I replied, “I am the driver,” smiled and turned to help my 91 year old mother out of her chair for dinner.