Our city editor Dennis was actually looking for a sucker who would be willing to get up at 3:30 a.m. this “Black Friday” when I inadvertently volunteered myself. In all fairness, he had said he was planning on asking me anyway.

Why did I do it, you ask?

Simple. I worked for three days, got off on Thursday for the holiday, and wanted that one day between the holiday and my holiday weekend so bad I was willing to go to the extremes just to get off work early.

And it worked out OK. Actually, there was something else for me in it - I had never actually experienced a Black Friday before 11 a.m. before, and I was curious to see what all the fuss was about.

At 3:30 a.m. I rolled into the QuikTrip to load myself up with sugar, and to buy a shot of energy supplement (just in case). I had stayed up until midnight on Thanksgiving, working to get a project done and hadn’t gotten much sleep, needless to say.

It appeared that other people had the same idea in mind. I saw them filling up on coffee and hot chocolate and stocking up on candy and energy shots…

Around 4, I was ready to take on Kohl’s.

With the store being new to the Alton area, I wans’t sure what to expect. I had been told beforehand that Target had been a little rough in the past, but I didn’t even know where to begin here.

I walked into the store and found a few bargains. I watched as the other shoppers, mostly ladies, rifled through the sales racks and specials, looking for the deal of a lifetime. Thanks to the ads in The Telegraph the day before, I knew just what I needed. Again, it appeared the other early shoppers and I were on the same page, as I saw many of them dragging around the 21-slot photo frame I felt so lucky to grab for $15.

The checkout line was GINORMOUS and kind of intimidating, but I took the chance to stand there and observe the Black Friday shoppers in their natural habitat.

Unlike the horror stories I heard, these people were completely civilized, and thanks to the organization of the store, the line only took 15 minutes to get through. And since it wrapped around the store, some people got more shopping done while in line.

That couldn’t have been it, I thought. So off to Target I went.

The line was long, which I expected, so I hopped right in and started talking with the shoppers around me. The group I was standing with seemed very friendly. The man standing in front of me joked about how his wife who had sent him out was lying cozy in bed. I tried to keep an ear open for the big ticket item everyone was waiting for. Electronics seemed to be the buzz.

Finally, they let us in. Actually I didn’t even go in. I just observed the line and stood there, impressed by the security. Anyone thinking that security wasn’t necessary, by the way, must be kidding themselves. It could have been madness without those guards keeping the peace, and I have heard that it has been in recent years.

After trips around the mall and Office Depot, eventually I had to get back to the ‘graph to write my story and put in my video. I swore up and down I was going home to go to bed right after work, but truth be told I went back out into the shopping madness!

I think the pressure was off this year, being that I wasn’t one of those desperate to grab that travel DVD player or that $200 TV from Wal-Mart. I think it could have been different in someone else’s shoes, and I’ll be anxious to see how things go next year. You might even see me waiting in line at Target again, 5:30 a.m. sharp.

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