Just to remind you that all the cool kids are following me on Twitter, just in case you still are not.
I mentioned last week that I thought I’d reach the goal of 700 followers by the end of the week, and I did. I’m now at 711, which of course puts me in mind of 7-Eleven, which seems meaningful because my dear wife’s late father was in the convenience store business, and her brother still is, in Memphis. 7-Eleven was a competitor of theirs, although I don’t think it’s been in that market for quite some time.
Remember when “7-Eleven” actually meant that the store was open hours and hours (from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.) before and after a regular supermarket, for your convenience? It sort of shows how radically our retail culture has changed since the ’60s. Now, a convenience store has to rely on location, more than longer hours, to get business. Except for those that are open 24 hours — but then, there are supermarkets that do that, too. And Wal-Mart.
Yes, boys and girls, there was a time when we had down time, when we weren’t running around buying stuff every minute for the simple fact we couldn’t. We just waited and bought stuff when the stores were open.
Hard to imagine, I know…
We also weren’t in touch with everyone we knew, every second, 24/7, via such media as Twitter… which brings me back to my new goal, which is to exceed 1,000 followers by the end of the year. Not a very ambitious goal, I’ll admit, because the number can be manipulated. I try to keep the number of people I follow close to half the number following me. When I fall short of that, I follow more until I get up to that halfway mark, and presto, there’s a sudden rush of new followers. Just the way social media works. But it’s good to have goals, or so I’m told.
Hope to see you there…
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That was quite a segway.
Your comment about the early closing stores made me think of my favorite day of the year, Christmas day. Sure I love the exchange of presents and family gatherings. But what I really like is the wonderful serenity of the day. Very few stores are open. If you forgot something you just have to do without (until Dec 26). There’s none of this, let’s run to Wallmart or Target to do some shopping. The lack of traffic on the highways is also a bonus. Turns out it’s the safest day of the year to drive. (I can provide statistics for anyone who’s interested). It really is a day of “peace on earth”.
Oh, I’m the champion of the segue. I used to say that someday I’d like to publish a newspaper that just had one, book-length story in it, one that encompassed all of the day’s news, because everything is connected. When people would look at me dubiously, I’d say, “The key… is in the transitions.”
Anyway, I’m with you completely, Bud. That’s why I miss the times when Sundays were like that. Everybody obsesses about the religious roots of that long-gone tradition, and in their mindless modernity condemn it on that basis (based in what I regard as a flawed reading of the First Amendment), but to me it’s a simple matter of recognizing that humans need down time, but the way we’re wired, if we CAN go shopping, we will…
Uh-oh. Did I unintentionally provide support for Blue Laws? That was certainly not my intent.
Once when we lived in Maine during the 90s, we forgot to get something to take to a Thanksgiving dinner we had been invited to. Absolutely no store was open, not even a convenience store, except LL Bean up in Freeport. I believe we brought candy….
In Maine, they closed all the stores on a lot of holidays–not a law–just a custom. It made you focus on the fact that there was a holiday and that you either planned ahead or did without.
I love that Chik-Fil-A _chooses_ to close on Sundays, even though that’s my usual shopping day.
My problem with blue laws is that they are an unwarranted government intrusion into commerce, giving the businessman no choice. “You may only be open these hours on these days.” “You may not sell this merchandise during these hours or on these days.”
The only business in which I think government has a legitimate right to control sales and hours is alcohol sales, but any intrusion, even there, should be reserved for extraordinary cases.
Ha! Remember when you could teach a kid to drive on Sunday afternoons because the mall parking lots were empty?
Yup, Burl–and that’s how I learned to drive on ice up in Maine–a nice icy, vacant parking lot. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with young people today–not cell phones–No empty parking lots!