Carbondale Bytelife

It take a pretty expansive use of the term "more" for the Southern to move from a story mentioning 2 people staying in on New Year's Eve to a general statement that more people are staying in for the holiday. I guess two people is more but still, I was looking for some statistics or research that said there was a trend throughout the country or even the region.

Labels: holidays, southern Illinois, Southern Illinoisan

It's that time of year again. Time for cookie walks. The churches have wised up this year or at least two of them have. The First Christian Church (Gee, I didn't think any organization used geocities anymore) at Monroe and University is having their's tomorrow from 9 to noon, then St. Francis Xavier hosts their's NEXT weekend from 9 until noon as well. You see the cunning plan, don't you? The FCC sucks you in: "Why bother baking? Get your Christmas cookes for the home and office parties here." But what happens to those delicious cookies next week? They all get eaten, that's what. Then St. Francis comes along, a week later, with plenty more cookies to add to your holiday parties (and wasitline). In past years, wehn they had the cookie walks on the same weekend, there wasn't the opportinity to hit the cookie buyer with that one-two punch, but now.....

Labels: Christmas, church, downtown Carbondale, holidays

Caught most of the Lights Fantastic parade last night, which looked very well attended, despite the chill temperatures and brisk breeze. The Square had people standing 6 deep on the west side, all of them very well bundled up, except for the one guy I saw running around in shorts. The hot chocolate tent had a line of 10-12 people most of the parade and the funnel cake wagon was packed as well. I didn't see many people getting pictures taken with Santa and the reindeer but most of that action may have taken place during the pre-parade activities. I was wondering if any kids were getting confused since we had one Santa with the reindeer and one on the float at the end of the parade

Teardown was pretty well organized as well. The parade ended about 7 and traffic was back to flowing normally by about 7:15 when I headed back to the store to thaw my nose and ears out. Kudos to the city for that.

Labels: downtown Carbondale, holidays, Lights Fantastic

Had a friend who went over to Target this morning but gave up when she saw the line stretched around the entire building. When I left town around 9, Kohl's lot was still filled but there was a noticeable amount of space around Best Buy, Wal-mat and University Mall. Nationwide, sales appear strong but no certainty they will continue.

Labels: business, Carbondale, holidays

Though Father's Day dates back to 1910, it was only made official when Pres. Nixon signed it into law back in 1972 (or Pres. Johnson in 1966, depending on your source). And yes, it is true that Father's Day is number one when it comes to collect calls. However Mother's Day is number two and Valentines' Day is number three.

Labels: holidays