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This blog attempts to track changes, amongst its other topics, occurring over the past century or so.  It strays from that fairly frequently, but here's a clear change that's worth sadly noting.  The end of actual days of rest.

This is an observation I've made elsewhere here from time to time, but it's really on my mind today as for the first time in my life, some major retain stores are open, today. Thanksgiving Day.  It's reprehensible, in my view.  Frankly, I'm not really all that thrilled about "Black Friday", the biggest shopping day of the year. This is a phenomenon that only developed within the past couple of decades in and of itself.  It really brings into sharp focus the extent to which the US has gone from a production economy to a consumption economy.  So does the end of the day of rest.

Wyoming has never had Blue Laws, or at least if it did, I'm unaware of them.  Blue Laws, for those unfamiliar with them (which is undoubtedly an increasing number of Americans) are laws that mandate that stores be closed on  Sunday.  Blue Laws tend to be strongly associated with religion, but that association may in fact be inaccurate.  What causes that belief is that Sunday is the Lord's Day in almost all of the Christian denominations, with the Biblical injunction against working on the Sabbath being regarded as having been transferred from Saturday to Sunday.  This isn't a theology tutorial, so I won't get into the the theology behind that, but all Christian denominations have the concept of The Lord's Day, with all Judeo Christian religions believing that there should be a day of rest.  Hence, the widely held belief that Blue Laws are merely a civil law to enforce a Christian belief.

Christ observed that the Sabbath was made for man; not that man was made for the Sabbath, and that really reflects the general concept behind Blue Laws.  As the nation industrialized it was observed that many employers would not give a day off of any kind, if they could avoid it.  Generally, social pressures meant that most employers had to give Sundays off, but that was it.  Ten hour long days, six days a week, were the rule.  And the labor was very grueling.   Blue laws meant that there was at least one day off for everyone, which not only meant that the Biblical injunction was observed, but that people had a de facto chance to rest, if only for a day.  The labor movement, through long arduous efforts, eventually secured a second day, Saturday, and the weekend was born. This didn't come about because employers were eager to make the work week five days long, but because workmen struggled for a second day off.  Its' a necessary day as well, as at a certain point people become unproductive and even dangerous by overwork.  Some time off is necessary.

The weekend off also came at a time when the Federal government, like other national governments, saw fit to provide for a few extra holiday days off during the year.  These days have never been very large in number in the United States.  Other nations tend to have many more.  These Federal holidays are largely observed simply by giving Federal employees the day off, and by closing all Federal services on those days.  But, up until a few decades ago, most civil employers followed suit.

That really leads to the current conversation, as even where Blue laws did not exist, it was the rule up well into the 1960s and even early 1970s that employers did not require employees to work on Sunday, and things were closed on Sunday.  Religious people and non religious people observed the custom. This custom extended to Federal holidays.  I well remember, as a young child, that my father would make sure to buy gasoline early if the 4th of July fell on a Monday or Friday, for example, as it would be impossible to buy it anywhere all weekend long.  No gasoline stations were open.  None. Not even the truck stop out on the highway.  It wasn't the law, it was the social custom, and it was observed.

Some businesses were open on Saturdays, but they were certain types of retail outlets, and they tended to open later than normal. Automobile dealerships were open on Saturdays, but they may have kept shorter hours.  Department stores and certain other stores were as well.  This allowed people who worked all weekend long to shop on Saturday, which was also a long held custom.

About the only stores of any kind which were open on holidays were grocery stores.  My father always found this to be a bit appalling, and my wife still does.  Even major holidays saw some big grocery stores open.

Now, all this is passing rapidly away, and soon it'll be the case that all people, in all occupations, will be working seven days a week.  In the name of convenience and service, we're giving up the ability to have any free time off at all.

This has been a slow process, but the dam has really broken on it in recent years.  It started with some types of retain outlets, which probably reflects the evolution of the United States from a production economy to a consumer economy.  When most people were producers of some sort; industrial, agricultural, etc., or when most people serviced material items if they didn't work in these industries, it was naturally the case that the economic engines wouldn't see it as necessary to stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Washing machine manufacturers, for example, can shut down for the weekend and not be hurt economically. Washing machine repairmen don't need to fix things on Sunday. They can still do it on Monday.  But, retail outlets make no money at all if they're not open.  So, we saw the big "department" stores (a name that now no longer really used ) move towards seven days a week, a move that happened a long time ago.  This was followed by outfits like WalMart that simply never close.  Ever.  Small convenience stores followed suit, which at first made them a novelty, but which now really is not.

A person could state, of course, so what?  That's more convenient for me, right?

Well, probably not really.  Many more Americans are employees in that sector of the economy than in prior eras, which means that many more people now work any day of the week, and any hour of the day.  Now this is has advanced into the Thanksgiving Holiday. With that being the case, Christmas will not be far behind.  When a huge section of the economy begins to base their hours in this fashion, soon everything does.  At some point it will be probable that only schools and governmental offices will be closed on the traditional weekend.  This isn't a good development at all.

In much of the country Blue Laws never did exist, but the weekend did.  This was only because people felt it should.  That's probably the only way a real observance of holidays will return.  But that will require the shopper to realize that having the convenience, in 2012, of shopping on Thanksgiving is likely to mean that, in 2014, they'll be working on Thanksgiving, no matter what they do.