On the Tenth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me 10pm at Target

It’s 10 pm and we are just arriving to our destination. I look around the car to see if we have everything. Sleeping bags – check. Flashlights – check. Food – check. Games – check. Any normal person would assume I would be talking about camping or a sleepover. In a way we’re doing that. We have just arrived at Target to gear up for what Black Friday will bring. We have our ads with big sharpie circles around them and money in our pockets.

We look and see other people sitting in their cars waiting for the moment when someone will emerge from their vehicle to be the first one in line. It’s a gamble. If you get out to soon then you have other perturbed customers who now have to exit their warm and comfortable vehicles to stand in line for 7 hours. No one is making their move so we gather up our belongings and head over to the front door of the store. Adults eye us as from their cars as we start to set up “camp.”

Then almost as quickly as we made our move, others start to do the same and now an empty line has turned in to a line of 20. I look around proud that we were the first to be up front. We were teens and really didn’t care what other people thought about us. Our spirits were high! Why shouldn’t they be? Earlier we had poured over the many ads and made our plans. My brother and sister and I would go to Target and my other siblings to Wal Mart.

My mother let us pick out our main gifts and then ran to an ATM to get us money. This was possibly the only day of the year where we could actually pick exactly what we wanted. We were old enough now to be more expensive and we couldn’t afford every day prices, but we could with Black Friday prices. So we planned out our routes and picked what we wanted. Now all we had to do was get them. That was the tricky part! To ensure a victory we had shown up in ample time for us to be at the front of the line so we could come out victorious.

We bundled up in our sleeping bags and we started to play card games. We laughed, told jokes, and drank hot coco and ate warm donuts. We didn’t even feel tired and we kept thinking ‘this isn’t so bad.’ But since we had arrived so early we had a lot of time to kill. I looked at my watch and it was only 1 am. 4 more hours I kept thinking. Our cheery dispositions were dampened over time and also by the snow that was now blowing at us.

Our moods took a turn for the worst when my brother knocked over the thermos of hot coco spilling it all over a blanket we were sitting on. Now we had nothing warm to drink nor did we have something warm to sit on. “Why did we decide to do this?” I said aloud. “I’m never doing this again.” Now it was around 2 am and more than 100 people were in line. People began to crowd in to our space and some literally stood above us.” I guess it’s time to go put all of our stuff in the car,” I directed.

My brother gathered our things and put them in the car while we held a small opening for him to get back into. By 3 am there were scores of people all waiting and buzzing about what was on their wish list. I had no intention to stand for 3 hours but knew if I moved my place would be taken quickly. Although it was a little bit claustrophobic the body heat from the other people did make it a little less freezing.

Now it is 15 minutes to 5 and people are literally starting to push. My siblings and I are smashed up against the door and our faces are pressed to the glass. “Remember,” I kept saying to them, “Josh you go get the games, and Jackie you go get the cart. I’ll get the stereos.” People were yelling similar directions to their own families and I was now feeling a sudden surge of adrenaline.

The doors blasted open and we almost toppled over each other. I found my footing and began to run while a man loudly said over a loud speaker “do not run.” I ran to the middle of the men’s aisle where the stereos were and literally threw my body over two boxes. People were grabbing at whatever they could find or get. I pushed the boxes farther from the chaos and sat on them until my sister arrived with the cart. Over a dozen people came to me and asked if I needed both stereos and I assured them I did.

When my sister showed up with the cart we put our things in it and went to find my brother. While my back was turned my sister said “hey that’s not yours.” I turned to see a woman trying to take a stereo out of our basket we were standing with. She dropped it, turned around, and walked away. Soon we were with my brother who had gotten everything else and we headed toward check out. We were the first people there and we paid for our stuff and walked out after entering the store just 10 minutes before.

In fact people were still walking quickly in but we were done. We got to the car and put our stuff in and began to already reminisce about our experience. Almost like a team winning a medal in the Olympics we patted each other on the back and were overcome with happiness. My brother exclaimed “this is the best day ever.” We were then received home by oohs and ahs over what we got. Despite how much I hated standing in line I was already thinking ahead to what we would do the next year for Black Friday.

I know it seems so superficial that we do this almost every year since I was a teen. I also know that people forget common courtesies when they’re put in these situations. I don’t support this at all and find that even now it’s better to shop online. What I do want to say is that all families have crazy traditions and fun stories to back them up. This is our tradition which has died over time, but we still re live those stories whenever Black Friday rolls around.