So how is your Turkey Meter………over to the “I can’t eat another bit side” or still in the middle” like “If it is hot and has gravy, I’ll have another half pound” It is the dreaded Saturday left over day when nobody wants to cook anything else since the fridge and the folks are all stuffed.
Surviving Turkeys are breathing a sigh. Bucks that have not be shot, same story. But the greatest accolades should go to the Black Friday shopper who came home with the loot and lived to tell about it…….at length.
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So how is your Turkey Meter………over to the “I can’t eat another bit side” or still in the middle” like “If it is hot and has gravy, I’ll have another half pound” It is the dreaded Saturday left over day when nobody wants to cook anything else since the fridge and the folks are all stuffed.
Surviving Turkeys are breathing a sigh. Bucks that have not be shot, same story. But the greatest accolades should go to the Black Friday shopper who came home with the loot and lived to tell about it…….at length.
Did you know that most items you can buy at a discount on Black Friday are priced cheaper at some other time of the year?
But I found on my first journalistic Black Friday that it is the hunt and not just the 50% off items you want but don’t need.
I lived in Kansas City and was writing for the High Plains Journal when I heard about a new craze called Black Friday.
Early on the day after Thanksgiving, I drove to a mall a few miles from home in my Ford Truck and found a place in the grass that set above a quarter section shopping mall. The reason I parked there was that at 6:00 am, there were no empty parking places..anywhere.
Don’t take this as sexist but cars full of women were coming in as fast as they were going out. A KC cop was sitting in the median and each time the left turn arrow turned red, and three to six cars made an illegal entrance into traffic, he pulled out, got around the front one and ticketed them all. He did it about 4 times in 15 minutes that I saw.
I then went into a couple of stores and witnessed the bedlam.
At least for the mild Midwest it was full combat shopping. Anything on sale was under attack.
The bottle neck was paying and getting out.
The stores were crowded so much that getting in was slow but getting out was slower.
That was about 15 years ago. I haven’t been back.
There is a song on UTube…that summarizes my experience and it is our Weekend ag Matters song of the week.
(Black Friday...da da da blank)
That’s as far as I could go without wearing out the beeper……..
Seriously, have you tried Amazon….You can have a cup of coffee, scroll through everything in the world and buy it with just one click. A couple of days later, it shows up. No kicks, no bites, no obscenity..
OK, A number of Iowa Farmers Finished harvest this week. Late but safe. I spoke with one who has been at it since September.
He had the end in sight…when he spoke to me he had eleven acres left, not that he was counting and on Wednesday, just before dark….which is now at 4:30, he posted on Facebook as the header slid through the last row…
Bob Hemaseth from Far Northeast Iowa..past president of the Iowa corn Growers. Farms with his brother.
He made it before Thanksgiving but not before the snow.
(Bob Hemaseth Interview 10:00)
A lot of insight into farmer mentality. The good years can be very good but the bad years equally bad.
I’m sure you can second guess him……but you aren’t invested in the game he’s playing.
I’ll say this for Bob. He works hard and he loves farming. He’s not afraid to go to Des Moines or Washington, D.C. and state his case for farmers.
In a moment, we’ll look at this abbreviated week…and check markets from the short day on Friday. Also and update of news around the country that impacts agriculture and rural America.
Later, The latest Technology from John Deere…the only thing you have to do is be in the cab…and they are working on that.
And some fun sayings from our rural past. Are they true or just old wive’s tales.
There is nothing to advise against going to the Mall on Black Friday so they are not up to date.
This is Weekend Ag Matters on KXEL.
Here is a question. When did Auto Steer on Tractors first come out? The ability for a tractor to be controlled by a GPS link so the operator did not have to steer the machine except to turn it around or transport from field to field.
I talked technology with John Micheler, manager of new technology for John Deere.
(Technology Interview)
I still have my grandfather’s first plow. It is a John Deere, horse drawn 12 inch plow. One bottom as its called and you and the horse or mule had to walk about 11 miles to plow one acre of land.
Was the past really that good. My mother had one answer that summed it all up: “Yes, because I was young”.
She had a lot of phrases that were considered truths in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
The phrases were ways for people who couldn’t read or write to be educated, or culturally aware, by learning these sayings. Some were superstitions and others were just good advice.
My young wife Jane still hears some of these from her mother, so she is going to read some of this advice from the perspective of an Iowa Native.
(audio only)
