The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

A lot of folks don’t know this, but Black Friday originated on the South End. Tyee Store came up with an innovative marketing scheme back, oh, shortly after dinosaurs went extinct and the Southendomish Tribe gave up on ever getting their treaty rights to hunt pterodactyls. About 1977 it was.

They held a sale day after Gobbler Day, all you could carry half price. Folks camped all night in the rain to get first in line. Terrible cold, hard rain, horrible indigestion. Next morning shelves cleared in about half an hour. The food supplies for the entire South End dried up, hoarded by the lucky few.

Pretty soon the rumors started. Unspeakable rumors really. The denizens of the starving South End began to realize the pizzas were gone and the frozen burritos too and the Hungry Man’s were gonna prove prophetic now that they were missing from the puddling freezer chest bottom. The food riots were a harbinger, I guess. And then the rumors started drifting over to our west side, whispers at first, then full blown howls. Cannibalism, ladies and gentlemen. Cannibalism.

Eventually Tyee restocked their shelves and those delicious deli rotisserie gourmet hotdogs revolved anew. And the rumors? We don’t mention this any longer. We just advise the newcomers to stock the pantry with more than a day’s supply……..

And since then we South Enders traditionally stock up on ‘Black Friday”.

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