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According to the media, we must be approaching the big Holiday Season, eh? The special toy sections in the big box stores have been unveiled and my mail box is filling up with catalogs that I receive once a year. The TV has the usual tacky Christmas commercials running, and the news people have switched from election predictions to Black Friday predictions.
This year we are also debating the appropriateness of Black Thursday with many of the big stores promising you a head start for Christmas shopping by being open on Thanksgiving Day.
The Holiday season is a stressful time for us wid-ow(er)s, and I guess the merchants want to make it more so. I can hear that phone call now, “Dad, we’re not going to be able to make Thanksgiving dinner this year; we’re going shopping. We’ll see you at Christmas—if the stores aren’t open.” I’ve already made up my mind not to shop at stores open on Thanksgiving. The way I shop, it won’t put a big dent in their profits, but I’ll be making a statement. Maybe the Salvation Army will do better. I hope something good comes out of it.
I see women in the stores buying the Thanksgiving staples: turkey, ham, yams, pumpkin pie fixings, and aspirin for the headaches. It always seemed to me that Thanksgiving was a holiday that had one person, Mom, working her fingers to the bone and the rest of the family lying around watching TV and stuffing themselves at the table. She spent the night before preparing food, the morning preparing food, then serving food; the afternoon was spent fixing leftovers, and washing dishes. I always thought, “…and that’s a holiday; thank God for my male genes!” It makes a good case for turkey pot pies. One of my male grandchildren said it well, “I really think Thanksgiving is the best holiday—you don’t have to buy any gifts; all you have to do is eat.”
There seem to be more and more senior living facilities popping up all over. I wonder if the entrepreneurs building these places are overestimating the need for them. Most people my age I talk to seem to want to stay in their homes as long as possible. I wonder how one gauges when it’s time to get out of the home and into an assisted living facility? Of course I find myself having difficulties in the summer months when I have to take care of the yard and garden and household chores. My new rule is that the kitchen and bathroom have to be clean; the rest of the house can be messy and dusty, but not dirty. As time progresses, there is less garden on the outside and more dust on the inside. I suppose when there’s more dirt in the house than in the garden, I better move. While my wife was living, I was living in an assisted living facility. She assisted me by telling me what to do!
Say Happy Thanksgiving to a widowed person this week.
Alnada2704@gmail.com, or write care of the Winona Post, Box 27, Winona, MN 55987.
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