I love photos of times past, and this morning the Grey Lady has published a few of Christmas shoppers of yore.
The years are noted but not the days of the month, so there's no way to know if these pictures were shot on Black Friday. (I looked up the origin of "Black Friday" as a phrase. It was first used in 1951, but only by employers in reference to workers who called in sick on that day so as to make Thanksgiving a four-day weekend. The term didn't appear in The NY Times, "the paper of record," until 1975.)
The first photo is from 1940, which I share mostly because of the sale sign: "Brush Sets" from 59¢. (Of course the median annual income for men was a bit less than $1,000, and women earned just 62¢ of every male dollar made.) Little did shoppers know that, just coming out of the depression, they'd soon be hit with wartime rationing.
The next photo is from 1948. What's interesting here is that the shoppers appear to be lined up and held back, suggesting the day was indeed Black Friday — in spirit if not in name.
The last one fast forwards to 1991: portrait of an excited husband. This I post only because it reminds me of why my wife, and later my daughter, never wanted me tagging along on shopping trips. Both said my bored, haunting presence made them nervous and hurried. Men everywhere know what I'm saying.
Have a good shopping day, if you can. And if you've the courage. I, for one, am a coward.