Black #FlashbackFriday

Contrary to popular belief, there was a time when Black Friday was not so disastrous, overblown, and anxiety-inducing.

It never ceases to amaze me that the holidays can cause such mass hysteria and craze ordinarily docile individuals.  I am pretty sure that some of these people are like these year round, but not everyone could possibly be this bad, could they?

I live off of a major highway in my area, right near the local mall and several larger shopping centers, all within a stone’s throw of my neighborhood.  I didn’t go through any of them on my way home from Thanksgiving last night, but I have in past years.  I will tell you this though, the parking lot at the mall and the traffic didn’t indicate holiday, it looked more like a typical Thursday evening.  Except for all the closed restuarants.  That was the only difference.

Anyway, Black Friday.

In honor of the unofficial shopping holiday, I combed through the archives of YouTube, and found this great newsclip from November 25, 1983, from WLOX in Biloxi, Missippi.  It is part of their archives, and shows the way Black Friday was that year.

I thought maybe because it was the south as the reason why people were so polite, but it also was because stores weren’t running cutthroat sales and having anxious crowds at the doors waiting to trample people to death.

It was a simpler time, folks.

And I particularly love this video, with clip from that same newscast, set against clips from Black Friday 2013.

And then there’s this story (also from November 1983) about that year’s hottest toy, Cabbage Patch Kids.  This one comes from my home media market, WPIX 11 New York  I grew up watching this channel, and even though I live in the Philadelphia market now, I still get WPIX.  It may be a CW Network now, but in 1983, it was an independent station.

Enjoy!

If only these people knew what the future of holiday shopping on Black Friday would be like!

And there you have it, your Flashback Friday in the archives.  My archives will be back open for business next week, so until then…please don’t kill anyone over the last of whatever is popular this year!

Have a great day!