Bridges: Witnessing unique family bonding on Thanksgiving

It’s a funny to thing to watch at times the things that people do together as a family.
Last Thursday (Thanksgiving) was a hectic day for the place I currently work on a full-time basis. I won’t name the business here but anyone reading this knows its name and knows how it takes part in the so-called “Black Friday” sales.
The first part of my day at work (which began at 1 p.m.) was somewhat calm and even less hectic than usual. However, all of us knew it was simply the calm before the approaching storm of customers.
The store had to be rearranged and numerous holiday specials were put on display. Most of us at work that day performed duties out of our usual routine. It meant a chance to interact more with customers who were looking to burn off some of the Thanksgiving food they had eaten.
While shopping events like this are often painted as chaotic and filled with mega amounts of craziness, I am happy to report that I did not witness any of that on Thanksgiving.
What I was able to witness was families together taking part in holiday shopping for family, friends and associates and themselves. There were no fights over televisions or video games, as is often portrayed on this day.
Customers never tried to run past each other in line to purchase their choices. And I can honestly say not one customer was rude to me or my co-workers. Many even took the time to thank us for working on this holiday and for being away from our families. I must say that meant a lot to hear that.
Some family members bond over sports. I know watching football, basketball and baseball has always been something I have enjoyed doing with my father and my brother. Some family members enjoy taking vacations together and some even enjoy the simplest of things such as cooking out or playing golf or hiking or camping.
Last Thursday I saw entire families, including multiple generations in some cases, walk into a store to begin (and perhaps finish) their shopping for the holidays. I saw every type of merchandise purchased and not one punch thrown.
The holidays can be stressful for any number of reasons but one couldn’t tell that on this late afternoon as the sun disappeared (way too early of course).
It had certainly been a hectic week leading up to this point, but it seems that work paid off based on the number of positive comments heard from customers.
The holidays are definitely upon us now. It’s hard to believe another Christmas is now less than a month away.
Doing things together as a family is vital for us as individuals and to society as a whole. What a refreshing sight it was to witness to see so many families together on this recent holiday.
It certainly could have been chaotic, simply due to the number of people taking part, but that’s not how it was, at least where I was at. It seems a dose of holiday cheer has reached us already and that is something we can always use.
As we approach Christmas and a new year, here’s hoping it is a special time for your family and for all of those close to you. Of course, with less than a month to go before this most special of holidays it will be here and gone in the blink of an eye.
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Winder resident Chris Bridges is a former editor of the Barrow News-Journal and has earned awards from the Georgia Press Association, the Georgia Sports Writers and the National Newspaper Association. He welcomes feedback from readers at pchrisbridges@gmail.com.