On Black Friday, we went shopping in a hospice thrift shop in Brattleboro, Vt. Thrift stores are the only place Maria ever shops, and she hit gold at this one, she actually bought $25 worth of funky and colorful fabric for her quilts.

This was an all-time record for money spent shopping in a single trip for her. While waiting for her, I met this outstanding young man who decided to go to the hospice thrift shop rather than a mall, we hit it off right away.

He was delighted at having found this old hi-fit system for $20, he said he was launching a hi-fit revolution, a return to the rich and deeper pre-digital sound of music. He was thrilled with his purchase, he said it was vastly superior to buying an Ipad or Iphone.

He said there was nothing at Best Buy worth driving too for him, he and his friends all did their Black Friday shopping at the hospice store. His pals were all standing around him, happy about his discovery. It was as if he had stumbled across the Hope Diamond.

Sure, he said, he’d love to have  his picture taken.

Digital musical sound was too harsh and shallow for him, he said, he had no interest in Best Buy.

I loved seeing this divergent ides about shopping and Thanksgiving. While millions of people we storming malls, we were in a crowd thrift shop. I bought Maria a $7 inlaid bracelet, and between the three of us, we spent about $50 and felt fortunate to have found some wondrous bargains.

My young friend could not wait to go home and put this system together. His revolution was  underway. People like that change the world.  I hope had had the best holiday.