I waited in the crisp cold as Thanksgiving switched to Black Friday hoping to purchase this new laptop I am now typing with. My first thought as we pulled into the parking lot was, "Where are all the women?". Boys playing hacky sack. Guys discussing football. Men sitting in their chairs. My roommate Sparkle* and I moved into line, put our chairs down and realized we sat by another young woman. Soon the three of us were best friends, bonding through the experience.
Texting away to anyone we could think of still awake after eating their biggest meal of the year, we hoped the time would pass quickly. As the cold set in Sparkle says, "He wants to know what kind of tea we want." We joked about it, told him 'he was enough tea for us' and thought it would be left at that. He said, "No, really." And an hour later we had tea and hand warmers and Cliff bars to help make our stay better.
An hour or so before Best Buy opened the crowd started getting feisty. We lined up very orderly to begin with but at some point everyone decided to consolidate. Very quickly the coffee, chairs and tents were packed up and everyone moved into a mob instead of a line.
During this process the order of people became jumbled. This irritated, well, everyone. A group of men behind us ladies made sure they saved our spots when it took us a bit longer to pack up. When the Best Buy employees came out yelling, "Who wants a cell phone?" or "Who wants a T.V.?" these men asked us what we were in line freezing for. Several limited items needed tickets to be purchased and with the creation of the mob, it was every man for himself. With little chance the three of us women could cut through the huddle of men planning and scheming to get tickets for items they didn't want or need, the men that had just spend hours next to us made sure the girls got what they wanted. They intercepted the tickets and proudly presented them to us in one moment as they talked about how they didn't even know what they wanted when they got through the doors but were celebrating the other random tickets they scored and still held in their hands.
I left frustrated with the entitlement and consumerism I saw displayed that early freezing morning. I told myself though, that, although overall the environment was rife with ridiculousness that brings grown men to their knees, chivalry--courtesy, honesty and hot tea--still found ways to shine through.
*Her name is not Sparkle. But, 1) it makes sense if you know her real name and 2) we spent plenty of time while waiting talking about stripper names, so it seems appropriate.
This is so great. To think chivalry had died. Nope, it was hiding down the street at Best Buy. Of course, give it a few weeks, then boys get scared of love and hide chivalry in fake worlds. You know what I am referring to here.
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