Black Friday

“after hearing what happened in a Wal-mart, there is not way I am going anywhere near a shopping store. Tree got me a really nice ring for my birthday and it is a little to big but it can wait till the crazies go home!

Merry Christmas I guess.”

“NO WAY would I go shopping today.”

“I went shopping the day after Thanksgiving ONCE! I don't like shopping during the holiday season as it is much less on the craziest day of the year.

Black Friday is the day I put up the Christmas tree and lights. IF, I get that done early enough, the kids can decorate today but may have to wait until tomorrow.

Right now, I'm working up the motivation to blow the snow out of the driveway and clean the walks. Tis the season!”

“they were throwing PC's into a crowd, i wonder if you do catch it, if you are a winner or not?”

“buy me something nice”

“ummm NO”

“drats”

“Don't get me a snow shovel.

I can remember those days of carrying a shovel and rock salt in the trunk of the car.
last edited: 11/25/05 9:32:35 AM”

“oh well it seems i am heading to the mall.

this is my last will....spalpeen can have my hiking boots....throw the rest of my hiking gear up in the air and who ever gets it, can keep it.

this may get ugly. i may not return. i may return with a black eye...sigh
wish me luck”

“GOOD LUCK!!”

“hey mapes will the boots fit? can't I have something else? tent,bag,pad. tis the season of giving and I think it would be swell if everyone gave to me.It will make you feel good.really”

“well im back and i survied....

they are crazy!!!!!”

“I celebrate "Buy Nothing Day". :)”

“Jon and I headed out this morning at 4:30 a.m. First stop was Circuit City to buy 2 Toshiba notebooks ($200 after an instant $600 rebate). We arrived at 4:45 and got in line, probably about 500 people in front of us. Then we found out that there were only 15 notebooks there and they were already sold out so to speak. What they did was hand out vouchers to the people in line for what they were there for. So after handing out the 15 vouchers to the first 15 people in line who wanted them, they were sold out. I guess people were queing up in line by last night.

So we got back in the truck and headed over to KB Toys. Picked up a bagful of toys (they literally hand you a humongous body-sized bag as you walk in). Jon waited in line while I finished up finding some items so by the time I walked up to him with the stuff, he was next in line to check out. We were in and out.

Then we headed to Linens 'N Things for a few things on my list. No big crowds there. Then we were done and it wasn't even 6 a.m. Jon felt like checking out some of the great deals on Craftsman tools at Sears Hardware, so we headed there. We were totally done by 6:30 and went to breakfast. Home by 7:30 or so and went back to bed for a few hours.

Don't have all my shopping done, but what I bought was really cheap.



On the radio we heard a woman call in and say she had gone to Meijers at 3:30 a.m. since they are a 24-hour store. She filled up her shopping cart with everything she needed and checked out right at 5 a.m. when the sale prices went into effect. She was back in her car by 5:15 going home and totally done Christmas shopping.

One more comment: A nice thing about shopping that early is that the clerks were very friendly and helpful still at that point. ALl the stores were adequately staffed in anticipation. And all the customers who we encountered were very polite and friendly. I would never go shopping today later in the day when the novelty of the day has worn off.”

“I must admit I would rather be shopping than working. I am soooo bored.”

“Sometimes we go to the malls around here during the holidays just to people-watch. It can be pretty entertaining. Didn't get a chance to do that today; I was cutting back some big a$$ bamboo, and HPM was putting up a fence. However, both Lowes and Home Despot were packed when I was driving past them late this morning.”

“One test of a good year is whether or not I had to go into a mall. So far this year is looking good.”

“Man! I've been looking for a Sandisk 1GB MP3 player and they are just sold out everywhere. It's $119ish and Office Depot had them for $59. Gone in the blink of an eye.

I ened up going to Kohls today with a buddy and it was frickin' crazy.”

“These stores sure get everybody in the holiday spirit, don't they? What if everybody took the money they spent on useless crap that is made in China this holiday season, and instead gave it to a charity that actually helped people in need (of things like food, water and clothing). What a novel idea, in tuned with the actual meaning of the holidays.”

“well said mr bear”

“but does that mean no more presents for me?
bummer LOL”

“Buddha Bear, some people give all year round.

Do you limit your charity to the holidays?”

“:(, maybe, but for somebody in need - :)”

“see mr bear has the right idea, why should we have to do it when we are told to do it? do you really know the true history of thanksgiving? it is a very sad time in history. but it gets lost. same thing with christmas. ask kids today what does it mean and will tell you it is all about presents.”

“Sad time in history?

A three-day feast to celebrate the Pilgrim's 1st harvest following their first winter in America.”

“....with food provided by people they killed....

Ya gotta love evangelical missionaries! :)”

“1970, the Wampanoag had turned up a copy of a Thanksgiving proclamation made by the governor of the colony, the text revealed the ugly truth:
After a colonial militia had returned from murdering the men, women,
and children of an Indian village, the governor proclaimed a holiday
and feast to give thanks for the massacre. He encouraged other colonies
to do likewise-in other words, every autumn the crops are in,
go kill Indians and celebrate your murders with a feast.

The Wampanoag we met at Plymouth came from everywhere in Massachusetts. Like many other eastern nations, theirs had been all but wipe out. The survivors found refuge in other Indian nations that had not succumbed to European diseases or to violence. The Wampanoag went into hiding or joined the Six Nations or found homes among the Delaware Shawnee nations, to name a few. Some also sought refuge in one of the two hundred eastern-seaboard nations that were later exterminated.

Nothing remains of those nations but their names, and even some of those have been lost. Other Wampanoag, who couldn't reach another Indian nation, survived by intermarriage with black slaves or freedmen. It is hard to imagine a life terrible enough that people would choose instead, with all their progeny, to become slaves, but that is exactly what some Indians did."”

“The Truth About Thanksgiving



The people who now describe themselves as `Americans' actually stole their country from the Native Americans. They put the Indians in reservations (which got smaller and smaller). The Indians were civilised and spiritual but they had no guns and were an easy target. America was stolen by force.

At a meeting in New England in 1640 the following motions were put to the assembly.

1. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
2. The Lord may give the earth or any part of it to his chosen people.
3. We are his chosen people.

Naturally the assembled bunch of smug, barbarians voted `yes' to all these motions, and thereby sanctified (in their minds) the theft of a nation.

It was generally agreed that the Indians were savages with no rights and yet both the American constitution and the Declaration of Independence were based on texts devised and used by Native American Indians - texts which included fundamental ideas on liberty, freedom and even legislature.

The American Government signed 370 treaties with the Native Indians but violated provisions in every one of these treaties.

The Americans now celebrate the theft of the country they call their own with a feast called Thanksgiving.


Taken from `Rogue Nation' by Vernon Coleman, published by Blue Books and available from the shop on this website.”

“Dead people gave them food?

Actually, they killed their own fowl, deer, and used their own harvest. They even wrote about it at the time.

Russell Means is a nut, but his writing is good fodder for the extreme left.

(coo-coo)”

“The Truth About Thanksgiving
History books describe the first Thanksgiving as a harvest celebration held in 1621 by the Pilgrims, whose early settlers of Plymouth Rock, who wore big black hats and buckled boots and carried flare- barreled muskets.

The Pilgrims invited local Indians to their celebration, or so the story goes, and together they gave thanks and feasted on turkey and sweet potatoes.

Despite the propagation of the Thanksgiving story in books and encyclopedias, some historians believe a good deal of Pilgrim lore is just plain false. It's generally agreed that sometime in early October, not late November, fifty or so Pilgrims held a three-day harvest bash. Beyond that, there is little evidence to authenticate the stories. Writers and painters have tended to moralize and romanticize the story, embellishing it with colorful anecdotes and side stepping the grimmer details.

For instance, the Pilgrims most likely wore bright colored clothing and no shoes in the summer. Painters of the 17th century apparently supplied the pilgrims with their black hats and buckles. Did the Pilgrims really give thanks as the holiday implies? Plymouth Historian James Baker says that in all the voluminous writings of the Mayflower settlers, there are exactly three paragraphs referring to any kind of feast--with no mention of anyone saying thanks to anyone. There's no evidence that anyone said prayers, either.

The role of the Indians is also disputed. According to most history books, about ninety Indians were invited by Governor William Bradford to share the feast. (Bradford is the author of Plymouth Plantation, a history of the settlement which he helped establish.) The Dictionary of American History tells us that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated with the help of Squanto, a "friendly Indian." But other document reveal that Squanto was twice kidnapped and taken to Europe where he learned English. Upon returning to his native land, Squanto found that a disease carried to the New World by Europeans had wiped out his entire tribe, the Pawtuxet People.

What many history books don't tell us is that Thanksgiving may have been held to celebrate the massacre of Indians. In colonial times the settlers periodically held religious fasts, or "days of humiliation," and Thanksgiving days throughout the year. Sometimes such a day marked an Indian Massacre”

“sorry sarge you will lose this one. to much proof. just say it is true and let it go.
i do like how i can gather with friends and family and be gratful of what i do have”

“source?”

“Never mind, I found it.

"The Vegetarian Times" is your source.”

“That's classic! LMAO!

Thanks mapleleaf. That was funny!”

“its sad sarge when your incorrect you will never say so

so state your source!”

“I love how the Vegetarian Times tries to discredit Thanksgiving with this line:

"For instance, the Pilgrims most likely wore bright colored clothing and no shoes in the summer."

LOL! Oh man that's good!”

“i can see how facing the truth is scary for you. after beinbg taught all these years a way of thinking and then finding the truth can mess you up, but sarge truth can hurt sometimes. and it is ok to say you were wrong”

“My source for what? Thanksgiving?

How about Plymouth Plantation for starters.”

“You're right mapleleaf. The Vegetarian Times should be taught in history classes, not historical writings by the original pilgrims. My bad.”

“Here you go mapleleaf.

This is from somebody who was actually there.

http://members.aol.com/calebj/mourt.html

Knock yourself out.”

“ok go ahead state it...


what is your truth? what were you taught in school or were ever? is that why you think this is the truth?”

“Here's another by somebody else (who was writing at the time in question):

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1650bradford.html
last edited: 11/25/05 11:35:45 PM”

“The most striking and little- known reality surrounding the Pilgrims is that the Eastern coastline of America had been in contact with foreigners for about 100 years before the establishment of the Plymouth colony. A year before colonists arrived, smallpox introduced by these contacts had wiped out the Wampanoag village that the Pilgrims settled. Pilgrims were able to survive their first winter partially because of guidance by the natives and because they dug up the deceased Wampanoags to eat the corn offerings in the graves.

The revered Squanto who showed the Pilgrims how to survive had been a member of this village and spoke English. He had been taken to England and eventually returned, intermingling with Europeans for many years. Squanto's case shows that Indians were not naïve about the arrival of Europeans on their land.

But despite these facts, McGuire said, stereotypes live on.

"Natives are at best ambiguous about Thanksgiving and some are totally opposed to it," McGuire said. The fact that most elementary school curriculua only emphasize Natives around Thanksgiving is a staple of resentment. McGuire remembers a time when his daughter was in preschool and taught how to "play Indian" by wearing a paper headdress and making stereotypical noises and gestures. McGuire, disappointed by his daughter's misconceptions, set the record straight and made her recognize "that's not how Indians play."”

“Did you write that mapleleaf?”

“does it matter?”

“As I read this thanksgiving volley between sarge and maple I think what I see is the same event(more or less) told from the perspective of two different cultures. Both have truths in them. Both may have storytelling embellishments added by creative historians too. Why is that hard to believe, I wonder.
Either way. i celebrate BUY nothing Day.”

“That's funny.

The writer of that is also the writer of "Easy veggie cooking".

That's too much!

Anyways, the whole story she wrote is how the Pilgrim's didn't wear the big belt buckles and tall hats as depicted in the 1st grade books.

Oh no! Thanksgiving is rooted in SATAN!

("Satan" is a bad thing, for those of you not sure of "good" and "bad".)”

“Yes mapleleaf, it does matter.

You see, history isn't something we just "make up" and "rewrite".

My sources are original sources from the time.

BOTH of your sources are from anti-Turkey eating people who have no experience living in the 17th century.”

“mapleleaf - The more recent source of your history re-write is James Loewen. Rewritten by a lady who wrote "Easy Veggie Cooking", as quoted by you.

James Loewen's writings on this have never been backed up, verified, proven, even slightly, by anybody. Only re-written, copied, and sucked up by people who either hate America, hate Christian's, or hate turkeys.
last edited: 11/25/05 11:54:41 PM”

“hiking, it is a case of he said she said. you are true. sad as it is, it is the truth. i guess i see the end result and that is how i base my judgment. if you think about the orig thread BLACK FRIDAY and what it means, i have 60 % off so you should buy from me. why?
what do we get from it? what is the meaning from it?

i see a darker side of the holiday then most and that is ok. i can not change the views of others and i dont want to. i just want to give them something to think about”