I have admitted in the past to not sharing the excitement of a new player on the Heat basketball team, a new baseball stadium in Miami, a new football stadium, a new arena (since gone), a Dolphin win, or any other sports-related news.
Don’t get me wrong, I annoy my wife as do many men, when I plop myself down in my easy chair to watch a sporting event. She usually shouts from the other room to close the door because she cannot stand the noise. Yes, I do occasionally watch an event, but unlike many others when it is over, it is over! I become neither depressed nor elated with the outcome but simply enjoy watching the game and seeing the athletes perform.
Were that my only misgiving I would not be writing this article, but with the holidays fast approaching I find myself out of the mainstream once again. There is this new phenomenon called Black Friday. To me the reason that it is black is that if I try to do a couple of normal errands I end up standing with others in long lines waiting to check out. This past Black Friday, I witnessed people actually camping out outside of the Best Buy store in our town in order to be the first to take advantage of the alleged bargains.
Yes, there were some TVs being sold at reduced prices, which I am told were gone within an hour. Would I have liked to buy one of these? Of course, even though I don’t actually need one. Would I stand in line or even set up a tent and camp out overnight to get one? Hell no!
I honestly don’t think that there is anything that any of these stores sell that I would want badly enough to spend an entire night in a tent waiting for a store to open so that I could be first in line. What is wrong with me? Am I so rich that saving a few dollars is meaningless? Am I just a snob who doesn’t want to be seen with the masses? I will let those who know me best be the judge.
I love technology and enjoy having the “next to the latest” gadget but I have been able to resist the need for being the first person to own one. Getting the latest iPhone or tablet is something that I can easily wait three or four days after introduction to own. Perhaps I am weird.
Perhaps some of you are old enough to remember and recall when Microsoft first introduced Windows 95, people stood outside all of the various computer stores in order to be the first to have this wonderful new operating system. I still have my original disks and authorized instruction manual for Windows 95 and would be willing to sell them to the highest bidder with a minimum bid of $10,000. They must be worth at least that considering the excitement on the day it was released.
Come on, folks, I need the money to buy my iPhone 12 once it is released. I am sure there will be many, many features of which I will have absolutely no idea how to use, but at least I should be among the first to own one. In our society this is more important than what the devices actually can do for you.
I also have resisted the temptation to own the very latest automobile with lots of extra buttons and gadgets that seem totally unnecessary. Of course, I go back to the days when having directional lights was quite an advancement, yet now no one bothers to use them anymore. They are more involved playing with all the other new gadgets and don’t need to show off their blinking lights. By resisting the temptation to have the very latest auto I end up actually owning my vehicles. How many of you can say that? Imagine a life without car payments! Please don’t follow my example. As I said at the beginning, I am probably nuts.
The best of holiday greetings to all my friends and readers.
Other articles by Ernie Sochin can be seen at www.sochin.com
