Kraynak's Time of Year


“It’s that Kraynak’s time of year”. Ho, Ho, Ho!!!! The Christmas rush is off and running, and right on schedule at the beginning of October. Midst my Halloween decorations and the opening salvo of family negotiations as to who is going where for Thanksgiving (we are demanding bilateral talks while the rest of the families want 6 party talks), I saw the first Kraynak’s commercial with its sickening jingle on television last week. For those of you not familiar with this area, Kraynaks is a garden center located in Hermitage, PA, just across the border, and is known for its miles of aisles of imported Christmas accoutrements as well as its world famous Santa’s Christmas Land. The “lil’ darlin’s” love it.

The season has been rushed to the limit this year. For over a week, both QVC and Home Shopping Network have been pushing the holiday cookware, wrapping paper, lighted poinsettias and Christmas trees. In fact, I saw some of this stuff in August. Gift giving is the battle cry for the rest of the merchandise they are selling, especially the jewelry. I know that I will simply not be able to live without that Invicta watch. My mother even quizzed me today as to what we want for Christmas this year. I gave her the Lucy line from Peanuts: Tens and Twenties.

This afternoon I went to “Christmas in the Woods”, a craft show in an area better known as Shaker Woods. At least there was a chill in the air. Last year we went in short sleeve shirts. There is nothing I like better than to look at wooden Santa Clauses at a show featuring local artisans. By the way, the artisans must specialize in import/export because as we were leaving, we peaked into some of their trucks and trailers which were left open, all loaded with boxes that said “Made in China”. Hey, never knock another man’s hustle.

I am already making plans to go to the Christmas Light Up night in Pittsburgh. And I am looking for various Christmas concert tickets. If only the leaves would fall off my burning bushes, I could go to Kraynak’s and buy twinkle lights and get them up before the weather turns nasty, unless I lived in Buffalo, where that horse has already left the barn.



While flicking around the television channels today, I noticed that the Home Shopping Network theme for tonight was Holiday Home Solutions. To what? I didn't know that my home had any holiday home problems. Maybe it is practicing preventative medicine. Somehow I think the best medicine would be to put the holiday where it belongs, in December.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strouss-Hirshberg; Things That Aren't There Anymore

Image
Youngstown was at the heart of the American industrial revolution in the mid 1800’s. During World War I, more steel came from Youngstown than anywhere else in the world. It’s no wonder, then, that the area was home of some of the best of everything, including department stores. Strouss-Hirshberg and McKelvey’s were the Macy’s and Gimbels of northeast Ohio, and offered to local residents the best of what money could buy. Strouss will always hold a special place in the heart of this area. It is hard to believe that there are twenty somethings today that haven't heard of it, or go “huh?” when you mention it. I tried doing some research on its history. Believe it or not, it is hard to find. As near as I could figure, the Strouss Hirshberg Company was originally known as D. Theobald and Company. Isaac Strouss clerked there, and eventually bought the store in 1875 with his new partner Bernard Hirshberg. The store was incorporated in 1906. The Readers Digest version of the life of the
Read more

Hope vs. Aspiration

Image
Don't forget to visit http://www.markknowsitall.com/ Hope: to have a wish to get or do something or for something to happen or be true. Aspiration : a desire or ambition to achieve something. As the 2008 presidential campaign heats up, Barack Obama is in full gear selling his vision for the future of America. He is for “hope” and “change.” …and oh yes, peace. He is also for “peace.” Aren’t we all? Obama, the oratorical wunderkind with the speech cadence of Martin Luther King, is doing a fine job of telling us what we should hope for, and how he is going to give it to us. He is a riveting individual and a spell binding speech giver. Hope is a good thing, right? Obama believes Americans are “hope” deficient. Americans “hope” for universal (read “government run”) health care, even though 85% of Americans have coverage, and 25% of those who do not aren't American citizens, and an additional 14% of those who don’t can afford it but simply choose not buy it, and a portion of the re
Read more

New and Improved: Big Bosomed Women Who Party

Image
Of all the words in the English language that I have learned to fear and despise, the phrase that sends chills up and down my spine the most is "new and improved."   The new part is probably right, at least partially, but the improved is open to question.   It usually translates to confusion, work, and money.   This is especially true of the computer geeks at Google, You Tube and Facebook, along with all of my stock programs.   Those are particularly aggravating because I actually pay a monthly fee for some of these digital age gems. What is wrong with these people?   Do they take delight in terrorizing hundreds of millions of people by making them figure out how to get a program or site to do what it used to before they made it better?   Case in point is Google, the most used search engine in the world.   Google does everything for you now but go to the bathroom, and it can probably give a print out for that too.   I think it can actually predict when you will belch.   It t
Read more