![\"1st](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1st-Thanksgiving.jpeg\")
<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The first Thanksgiving took place in 1621<\/strong>, a feast shared between the Pilgrims<\/strong> and the Indians<\/strong>. They ate duck and venison and played games together.\u00a0 The cause of the celebration was the Pilgrims first harvest in their new land (the Indian’s old land), but unlike those who followed, rather than kill, capture or constrain the Indians, they invited them to dinner.\u00a0 The invitation was probably a bit vague regarding dress, as the Pilgrims wore their formal black garments, white collars and funny hats while the Indians dressed a bit more casually; fortunately the \u2018No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service\u2019<\/strong> admonition hadn\u2019t been created yet.\u00a0 Thanksgiving remained pretty much the same for several hundred years except for the fact that Indians came to be regarded as second-class citizen and relegated to reservations . . . not for dinner.<\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thanksgivings for our generation meant getting together with family and having turkey, which had thankfully replaced the \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Then another \u2018F\u2019 word<\/strong> started pushing itself into our Thanksgiving holiday psyche . . . Finance<\/i>.<\/strong> Today, news at Thanksgiving hardly ever includes stories about how people celebrated or what we are thankful for, but rather how this year\u2019s \u2018Black Friday\u2019<\/strong> revenue will stack up against previous year\u2019s \u2013 consumer spending-wise.\u00a0 Before I give you the actual numbers for this year, you have to understand that \u2018Black Friday\u2019 statistics actually include retail sales from the Friday after Thanksgiving through the following Sunday.\u00a0 No, wait a minute, recently that\u2019s been amended to include<\/span> Thanksgiving Day as well, as many retailers are telling their employees not to be so thankful and spend time with family, but rather to get into work \u2013 we\u2019re open!<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In more \u2018F\u2019 news, Cyber Monday<\/strong> (another commercially aggrandized day to hype sales via the Internet) sales amounted to $2.29 billion<\/span><\/b> \u2013 just for the day; that\u2019s up 108%<\/b> from last year.\u00a0 And between 18-20%<\/strong> of that were purchases over a mobile device<\/strong> \u2013 Christmas shopping from your phone! \u00a0So while we still eat turkey and watch football, the media bombards us with Black Friday and Cyber Monday predictions and encourages us to spend, spend, spend.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 OK, this is turning into a rant; sorry, but these numbers tell me that we are getting further and further away from person-to-person contact.\u00a0 I get it that this is probably just \u2018old people talk’, but sometimes with age, come wisdom.\u00a0 OK, I\u2019m still waiting, but that\u2019s another story.\u00a0 I just listened to the lyrics of that classic Christmas carol, \u2018Silver Bells<\/strong>\u2019<\/i>:<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Children laughing, People passing, Meeting smile after smile<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As the shoppers rush home with their treasures<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0As numbers for Cyber Monday continue to grow, as I\u2019m certain they will, it puts us on a slippery slope that ultimately leads \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love my cell phone; wouldn\u2019t leave home without it, but I love family, food and football more; so before this new cyber world completely takes over, maybe we need to declare this year\u2019s next family gathering a \u2018Cell Free Zone\u2019<\/strong> \u2013 we won\u2019t have many opportunities left, as I\u2019m sure the next generation of mobile devices will be imbedded in our bodies somewhere.\u00a0 I think I have a suggestion as to exactly where they should put it.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0But I could be wrong.<\/p>\n by Bob Sparrow \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The first Thanksgiving took place in 1621, a feast shared between the Pilgrims and the Indians. They ate duck and venison and played games together.\u00a0 The cause of the celebration was the Pilgrims first harvest … read more<\/a> duck and venison.\u00a0\u00a0 In the early 1950s<\/strong> another American tradition was added to this day of feasting and thanking \u2013 football.\u00a0 Actually, football was added back in 1934 when the first game between the Detroit Lions<\/strong> and Chicago Bears<\/strong> was played on Thanksgiving Day, but that traditional game didn\u2019t come into our living rooms until the early 1950s when television sets became a fixture in most homes.\u00a0 From then on until recently, most Thanksgivings were about Family, Food and Football<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This year shoppers spent an estimated $57.4 billion<\/span><\/b> during the four-day \u2018knock-your-neighbor-down-to-get-to-that-last-iPad\u2019 event.\u00a0 Sounds like a lot of money, but it was actually down 2.9%<\/b> from last year.\u00a0 Worse yet, God forbid, there was a 4% drop<\/b> in that all important \u2018spending-per-shopper\u2019<\/strong> category.<\/p>\n<\/a> to no longer hearing \u2018children laughing\u2019 \u2013 how could you with your phone in your ear constantly. No longer will there be \u2018people passing\u2019 \u2013 unless it\u2019s gas as they sit on their computers shopping all day. And you\u2019ll no longer be \u2018meeting smile after smile\u2019 \u2013 there will be no one to smile for, unless you are taking a \u2018Selfie\u2019<\/b> picture to pass along to your friends on Facebook<\/strong> who couldn\u2019t care less. \u00a0And as far as \u2018shoppers rushing home with their treasures\u2019 go, Amazon will take care of that, it\u2019s got plans in the works to drop-ship your gift via drone, so they can eliminate the deliveryman altogether.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"