President Chevrolet

President’s Day on one calendar, Presidents’ Day on two others. I’ll go with the majority on this one, although I thought it was much better when George and Abe had their own days. Of course, the Washington’s Birthday car sales must have made Lincoln’s Birthday seem rather flat, as I don’t remember anything commercial happening on that day.

So now it’s the Presidents’ Day sales. A little kick in the economic booty to help us get out and spend during an otherwise slack period of time, retail-wise. When I worked in a gas station, we never did much repair business then.

The guy who thought up this Cinco de Mayo business was a genius. Take a minor Mexican holiday that’s not even celebrated in most of the country, whoop it up among the Hispanic culture in the U.S. as their own special holiday, and put in the earplugs so you don’t get deafened by the cash registers all ringing together.

Kwanzaa, which is supposed to be a period of reflection on cultural and family values just before the New Year begins, is turning commercial. You’d think the Christmas and New Year’s sales would be enough and this serious week could stay as its originator designed it. But someone came along and said, “Hey! Let’s market it! Lots of blacks out there to make us rich.”

Let’s hope we can keep Martin Luther King Day free of cards, trinkets, gotta-haves and other such things designed to make $$. Look what’s happened to our presidents.