Saratoga News Point of View Carl Heintze Why are Thursdays the way they are? As days of the week go, Thursday is not my favorite. I'm not quite sure why. Oh, I know, Thursday's child is not full of woe. It's Wednesday's child, according to Mother Goose, but Thursday's child has far to go. I'm neither a Thursday child, nor do I know any--at least, any who would admit to being a Thursday child. Just to be sure of this, I once looked up the day on which I was born. It was a Sunday. I think a Sunday child is supposed to be full of grace, something that certainly hasn't worked out for me, but no matter. I was not born on Thursday. Still I don't find much to commend Thursdays. Thursday, of all of the days of the week, seems to me to be the most nondescript. Thursday just doesn't have much going for it, or, at least for me. Although Sunday is officially the first day of the week and by present-day standards, Friday the last, nothing much seems to happen on Thursday. It's at least a day before the week comes to an end. It's quite a distance back to Monday, when the week really starts. It's not the middle of the week like Wednesday, nor the easing up that comes with Saturday. In my life, as I say, nothing much happens on Thursday. That's not true of the rest of the week. On Tuesday the garbage man comes. That means one has to spend at least part of Monday getting the refuse ready for his arrival. Tuesday also is traditionally the day on which elections are held, though I confess I have no idea why. Why aren't they held on Monday? Or on Sunday, as is the case in a lot of European countries? Or better yet, why not have elections on Thursday, a day which now seems not to be special for anything? Wednesday is the day--although only once a month--when the street sweeper comes to clean up what the garbage man forgot. So that's a special day, too. You don't want to park at the curb because then the street sweeper won't get it all. Wednesday, as I get it, also is now Hump Day because by the time it's over you're more than halfway through the week, an important consideration when you're working. Sunday--or in some religions, Saturday--is the Sabbath, a fact which gives both days a specific purpose, too. Or it should. We're supposedly a God-fearing nation, although my experience has been that a lot of folks do their worshipping on Saturday and Sunday at the mall. So even if you're not religious, Saturday and/or Sunday has a special significance. It's also my understanding that Saturday was a traditional market day in Asia, which may account for the large number of Asian shoppers at malls on that day. I also remember that Saturday in the days when I was growing up was said to be the day or the night for baths, just as Monday used to be the day when one did washing: "Rain, rain, go away, come some other Monday." In my family when I was a kid it took a long time to heat the water for a bath--and I am now sorry to admit--we only used the bathtub on an average of once a week. But Thursday? Not a day to do wash, or get washed, not a day to go to the mall, not a day to worship or take it easy, nor a day to get ready to start the week off anew, not a day for elections, not a day for much of anything. For some people, the editor of this newspaper, for example, the week organizes itself much differently, mostly because of deadlines and the day on which the paper is printed. This is also true of weekly news magazines. As I understand it, those who work for them start gearing up on Thursday instead of Monday. They often work over or through the weekend and spend their leisure time at home on Tuesday and Wednesday. I've only experienced this peculiar kind of week when I first started working. My days off were Thursday and Sunday. I worked on a newspaper that was printed seven days a week, so I tended to look forward to Thursday. It was supposed to be a day of rest, even though it was only a single day. It turned out, however, that since I was a cub reporter and I didn't get paid much, it was cheap to work me on Thursday. I got called in to work a lot on Thursdays. For five years, even though I was supposed to, I tended not to get Thursdays off. Maybe that's why I've got it in for Thursday. I hope this hasn't ruined your Thursday. Actually, it's helped mine. I've now got it out of my system, and I look forward to Friday. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, August 26, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.