Nancy with granddaughter Kennedy

“My husband is in the hospital and has been there for 11 days, and will be there for a few more,” Nancy said. “We’re getting all the things that we need. We won’t have him with us. It’s really not Black Friday shopping. [On Thanksgiving], we got really lucky. Both of my kids were able to come up and my sister came in from St. Peters and brought us Thanksgiving Day dinner. All four of us haven’t been together for Thanksgiving for the past five years, so it’s kind of cool.”

Anne Cejka

“I’m shopping for a baby shower gift today,” Anne Cejka said. “We stood out in the cold for 45 minutes, but it really wasn’t that crazy. One of my friends is having a baby [boy] in January. [I don’t have any kids]. It’s fun for me, living through them.”

Kathy Meek

“I’ve always liked to put up a lot of decorations for Christmas,” Kathy Meek said. “I love Christmas. It’s a big deal for me and always has been. There are six kids in my family and we have all of our kids. We have a big family. It’s all about the little kids for me with my nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.”

Evan Luberda

“I work in a restaurant,” Evan Luberda, bartender at 54 Street Grill and Bar, said. “Anytime Black Friday happens customers come in and they’re generally always upset because they weren’t able to find the deals that they wanted or the television they were looking for. People are generally in some shape or way annoyed. Everything else has a trickle-down effect of people unable to do things everywhere else they go. That’s what thing I’ve definitely noticed working in those kinds of places.”