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Parking lot campouts aren't just about bargains

By JIM ROSS
Published November 24, 2006

By the time you read this column, hundreds of Citrus County shoppers will be fully engulfed in the traditional day-after-Thanksgiving shopping spree.

Some will be enticed by the "door buster" specials that stores offer. Hey, TVs for $1.99!

Others will just be getting a jump on the bargains and getting their holiday shopping out of the way.

Me? I'll be awake and working this morning, but not shopping. My predawn retail experience already is behind me.

It started at 5:45 a.m. Sunday, when my 12-year-old son and I arrived at the Target in Ocala.

When it opened at 8 a.m., the store would have 24 of the new Wii game systems to sell. We - well, he - had been dreaming of this "opening day" for weeks.

He wasn't alone. A small village had grown on the sidewalk, complete with tents, sleeping bags, chairs and enough junk food to feed a small army.

A courteous, shaggy-haired young man named Jacob was first in line and thus Keeper of the List. He had arrived at 9 p.m. Saturday.

We signed up under No. 24. Whew!

The clock on a nearby bank kept flashing the time and temperature. The clock seemed frozen in time. So was I. The temperature hovered in the mid 30s.

I grew up in Chicago, so I've been colder. My son is Florida born and bred, but he didn't even zip his jacket. Ah, youth.

James was youngest, or second youngest, in the crowd. An adult woman wearing earmuffs camped out so she could buy a Wii for her nephew. She was one of the village "moms" and offered James a blanket.

Then there were the high school boys who couldn't wait to check out Nintendo's latest offering. One expressed a desire to attend some gamer convention next year in California. My son gravely announced a similar desire, and said he regretted missing this year's version.

What?

I knew nothing about this convention. Then again, I knew nothing about Wii or any of the other games that so captivate my only boy.

Only later would I learn that Wii, which plugs into the TV, features a handheld wand that allows a player to "bowl" a frame, swing a bat and throw a punch in the boxing ring.

When I was a teen, we didn't line up overnight for the chance to buy this kind of thing. We waited out for Rush and Police concert tickets.

Of course, when I was a teen you sated your desire to bowl by actually bowling.

But I don't mock the Wii lovers or the diehards who waited hours in the cold darkness. The ones I met were pleasant and didn't take themselves too seriously. They weren't opportunists, either: Few if any planned to sell their hot-off-the-presses Wiis on eBay.

My son dutifully saved his birthday money and researched which stores would have Wii and when they would open. He politely argued his desire to stay overnight outside Target and graciously accepted my 5:45 a.m. compromise.

All I had to do was provide supervision and some "early Christmas present" cash to seal the deal. It wasn't so bad.

In fact, it was fun. And humbling.

Wii comes with a built-in golf game. I made double bogey on the first hole. My 5-year-old daughter made birdie.

I wonder when she leaves for California.

[Last modified November 23, 2006, 22:34:38]