It’s over a month away and it falls on a day after Thanksgiving.
No, I’m not talking about Black Friday. That event is just not my thing. Too crowded and too crazy for me. I’m not referring to Cyber Monday either although I have taken advantage of the online savings you can find on that day.
No, I’m thinking about a day sandwiched in between those two – Saturday. A few years ago, a movement began to categorize the Saturday after Thanksgiving as “Small Business Saturday.” The idea was to visit actual brick and mortar businesses and shop there, helping your local business owners and local economy.
And that’s the key to my thoughts this week – local. It just so happens to have been the theme of a weekly photo challenge as well. What photo could I capture that expresses the theme “local?” Several ideas came to mind.
Here at Mama’s Empty Nest, we live in a rural area a few miles outside of our small town. There are plenty of photo ops in town with the beautiful river that flows through and the lovely waterfront park alongside it. We have a picturesque bridge over the river with hillsides on either side full of trees changing their summer clothes of green leaves for their glorious, colorful fall ones.
Or maybe I should just wander down one of our many country roads and snap away at the local views I find – in the woods, alongside a clear stream, a vista of farmers’ fields. There’s always something worthwhile to photograph.
But then, I started thinking about local in terms of what our mostly rural area offers as far as businesses go. We have our fair share of big chain stores and restaurants just like the rest of the country, that’s for sure. And downtown in our little burg isn’t quite the same as it used to be when I was younger and it was the place to shop. Many of the locally owned stores have closed but there are still enough around to enable us to support our own community.
From local pizza shops and restaurants to gift stores to florists to appliance stores to newsstands, we have a number of local options in our area without having to drive to the city or the suburbs. And a sweet gal I know and her friend just opened a new shop which features items from local artisans that I want to visit soon.
So when Saturday, November 26 rolls around on the calendar, you may find me supporting our local businesses to shop and/or eat instead of following the masses by driving to the mall down the highway to shop or dine at big chain restaurants.
You see, running with the crowd doesn’t make me happy. It usually just stresses me out. And I’m pretty certain I can find a little happiness right here in my little town.
“You can’t buy happiness but you can buy local and that’s kind of the same.”~ Unknown
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Mama's Empty Nest 
I’m all for shopping local! My son and his dad own a flag shop in our little town. Thankfully, back in the 1980’s, a group formed in our town to revitalize downtown. I, too, grew up when Main Street was THE place: jewelry stores, pharmacies, department stores, hardware stores, banks….then businesses began to move to the outskirts of town. That revitalization group obtained grants and had the utility lines moved underground, bricked the sidewalks and helped businesses such as gift shops, antique shops and restaurants move into the vacant buildings. We now have a beautiful, once again BUSY, downtown! You should come visit sometime!
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That’s wonderful, Dianna! Our little town is trying to get revitalized and I sure hope it succeeds like yours did. I’d love to come visit your neck of the woods. Been to Virginia many times and I do love your state. Hopefully, some day soon we will visit again. And we will arrange a meeting too! 😃
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That would be GREAT! We’d love to show you around our little town!
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