The Farm. November 19, 2023. Happy Thanksgiving Week!

This week we’ll rummage through 12 years’ worth of Thanksgiving related posts and see what we can come up with from bygone days. I am semi-inclined to write something new, so stay tuned for that as well.

And as a reminded, the latest reiteration of Jesse Jackson’s Sweet Potato Pie recipe is here. (Originally published 2015, but many reruns because it’s just that good.) And now, I give you November 2011. The blog was only a few weeks old back then!

Yes, indeed, Dear Readers–it’s time once again for our annual mini-rant about why I don’t like the term, “Black Friday.” [Minor edits form original]

“Black Friday” Thoughts: Part 1

Originally published on November 24, 2011 

These two short essays are from Lines of a Layman: T)he Golden Rule in Every Day Living.

The author is a guy named James Cash Penney (1875-1971. He was the son of a preacher-man in Missouri. As an adult, he went by J.C. Penney.

Those of us watching television this weekend are being assaulted by the company that bears his name. 

I was in a Penney’s just the other day. I saw that the store was going to open at 4am, and I commented on this to the lady on the other side of the counter. She had to be there at 3. 

I said I’d never met James Cash Penney, but I’d known people who had. And that I thought he would be turning over in his grave if he saw what was going on.

I know my dad is.

“Black Friday” Thoughts: Pt. 2

Originally published on November 25, 2011

Another essay, “America Has Been Good to Me”

Today I remember that the years have rewarded me for every talent I possess, and for every effort I’ve ever made– amply rewarded me not only with the world’s material goods, but richly rewarded me in many, many fine friendships– rewarded me too with an almost endless series of deep and gratifying experiences.

This is no casual thought. I have often pondered it. I write of this now not merely because America has been good to me. It’s often difficult for us in the United States to see this. Most of us were born in this country; we grew up here. Without giving it any particular thought we accept our country and the vast wealth, the many advantages, and the countless opportunities which it so lavishly bestows upon us. We take America for granted.

But while this may be quite natural–and is certainly understandable– it’s also dangerous. “Those to whom much is given, from them shall much be required.” This ancient precept is as true for us today as it was for those to whom it was originally addressed two thousand years ago. Sometimes we forget that those stern old statements so cardinal in the faith of our fathers are true, not because they are written in the Scriptures, but rather they are written in the Scriptures because they’re true. [Emphasis in original]

Maybe if he had applied himself when his country was providing him with free education, he’d know that the “?” is not the proper punctuation for this assertion.

Mr. Big Food has asked me repeatedly when “they” started calling the Friday after Thanksgiving “Black Friday.” I had no answer. We used to call the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving “Two Big Days,” and when stores began opening on Sundays, “Three Big Days.” Even the sales circulars and signage were labeled “Three Big Days!!”

Curiosity got the better of me so I consulted that infallible source, Wikipedia, to learn that the term originated in Philadelphia in 1966. 

The term’s spread was gradual, however, and in 1985 the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that retailers in Cincinnati and Los Angeles were still unaware of the term.

(No surprise there. Cincinnati isn’t exactly up-to-the-minute on these sorts of things.)

I don’t think I heard the phrase until the early- to mid-2000s. I didn’t like it then, and I don’t like it now. I doubt that Mr. Penney would like it. I am certain my dad would not.

Unlike, I’ll bet, Mr. Protester, Mr. Penney has been rewarded with “an almost endless series of deep and gratifying experiences.” I cannot fathom how participation in Black Friday qualifies as a deep and gratifying experience. But then again, I cannot fathom asking, “What can my country do for me?” 

Added 2022. I’m beginning to feel as if I belong to another time.