Wake Up! Waukesha
Jay, who has lived in the Waukesha area for nearly 20 years, is an active volunteer who serves on numerous local boards and committees. He’s married to Colleen with three kids having gone through the Waukesha schools. He is the VP of a local distribution company and currently serves on several area Boards.
A Holiday Perspective...
By Jay Walt
Sunday, Nov 26 2006, 05:49 PM
The Thanksgiving Holidays have come and gone. This year's Feast was hosted by the in-laws and it held many special meanings. Our (2) UW LaCrosse kids were home as was my wife's brother from Las Vegas. The cousins and grandchildren were all in attendance. The house was alive with warm feelings, and the smells of cooking turkey, dressing, pumpkin and apple pies, and much more filled the air.
The grandkids caught-up with each other during dinner in the dinette. Stories touching on each other's lives were exchanged with several promises made to see each other during the upcoming semester break. The adults "deformalized" the formal dining room with teasing and bad humor that somehow seemed just right. The food was savored and complimented; tired and old family stories resurfaced; harmless jokes were made - usually at someone's expense; and Grandma Ginny lapsed into her comfort zone as she tried to keep order while making sure we all had too much to eat.
The contrast between Thursday's family gathering and Friday morning's retail free-for-all was striking. How did I lapse from truly appreciating the genial family Thanksgiving mood to then, just 10 hours later, becoming a rabid, maniacal Friday AM shopper willing to almost commit a felony in my pursuit of those coveted "Doorbuster Specials"?
Was it the "once in a lifetime" savings? Would I be judged better by my neighbors if I could brag about how little I paid for items not really needed? (What was really wrong with my old shop vac?) Did it feel good to "compete and triumph" over others in the melee of competitive shopping? What if "everyone else is doing it" and I wasn't a part of it?!
...And now my kids have gone back to school; the brother-in-law is on his way home; leftovers have already been sampled; and we have the tender reassurances of another round of Thanksgiving memories being added to the family archives.
It's striking how comforting those personal memories are - and how insignificant and trivial my "retail bonanza" has already become.
A lesson learned as I approach the balance of the holidays...
