Dollar General- Her Holiday Looking Back FFF

 

Dollar General has decorated end caps now, Just Like Walmart. Above is Fall/Thanksgiving related. In my childhood, there was no decorating for Fall. 

My mother had what I considered odd ideas for decorating, but decorate she did, not by seasons.

Are you old enough to remember Vinyl tablecloths with flannel backing? My mother owned white, red, green, easter pink, easter blue, and candles in the same matching colors. She paid $1 dollar for each of them, and the candles were 5 tapers for $1 dollar. Each holiday the color for that holiday was placed on my grandmothers huge table, the white lace draped, 4 candle holders with matching colors in the center, assorted greenery if appropriate. Back then there were no affordable decorations and if there were, I never saw them. That was it, and she left that for the month of the holiday, then went back to no tablecloth, just wood.

Christmas was HER HOLIDAY! Mother had green or red vinyl, AND 6 placemats, of the cheap plastic Christmas kind on the vinyl with MORE matching candles, 8 or 10. She hung plastic mistletoe from light fixtures, both ceiling and lamps, draped silver garland on any and all Drape-able places, put out the Nativity with pieces that were 8 inches tall, covered the entire FAKE mantal. There was a hole for a fire, but it was a wall. (The fake mantle was where daddy hung his shirts/jackets when he removed them, EXCEPT during the weeks from Day after Thanksgiving through New Years Day, when he understood he better not hang anything on her decorations. She loved artificial poinsettias and the living room looked like a bouquet of them exploded leaving them everywhere. Last but not least the cheapest and largest tree that would fit in the room, which meant it was always crooked, and daddy had to remove some limbs and add them to other places on the tree, then Daddy put it in a bucket of coal, with water, tied it to the wall with hooks to straighten the crooked and also to steady it. She put 87 million icicles on it, and every time we hung the last icicle, she sat down and said: 

"This is the prettiest tree we have ever had." 

That sentence was the family joke! There was never a year she did not say that sentence as the last icicle was hung. As I took these two photos of endcaps that were nothing but decorations, I found myself wishing she could see the endcaps, see Dollar General Stores and Dollar Tree Stores. She would have gathered every aqua decoration in that one spot. She also would have fainted at the cash register when we rung up the first item. 

Things have changed since she died, really changed. Not just prices, and how much we have to choose from, but the HUMANS have morphed into a different species.

 My mother would be shocked to her core over the next thing I saw/heard while these endcaps were in my view.

As I stood scanning my purchases, doing my chatty Cathy imitation, the manager, a Chatty Carl, who chatted back, while a homeless man came in with a backpack on his back. He walked down the aisle and Chatty Carl, said Sir! you must leave your backpack up here, no bags or backpacks allowed in the store. Three times he said it, each time elevating the decibels that could be heard all over the store.

Right there, in front of Fall Harvest, wishing us Thanksgiving Blessings, and also, there in front of the Christmas display of peace, love and joy, the argument escalated to screaming and cursing at each other, and threats from both. I grabbed my bags and ran for the car, hoping I could drive away before one or both pulled a gun and started shooting each other.

Right then and there, the word Noel, which means Born of God, stood watching the war that started over a backpack.  Thanks to our governor, we now have FREEDOM to wear a concealed weapon without a license, open carry a gun, which means you can walk around with a gun in plain sight on your hip and be ready for just in case someone says you can't walk in with a backpack.

NOTE: I drove home, put the bags on the counter and found I was missing a bag, with 20 dollars or merchandise in it. I drove back, walked in the door and smiling Chatty Carl held it out and said I saved it for you! Thanks for coming back for it and thanks for shopping with us.

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